BORNEO SPORENBURGAMSTERDAMAYSHA FAROOQ HAMDA AL HAJRIEXCURSIONS GERMAN UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

TABLE OF CONTENT

GENERAL INFORMATION

THE DEVELOPMENT

CONCEPT

CHARACTER

TYPOLOGY

INFRASTRUCTURE AND MOVEMENT

CONCLUSION

History

Borneo Sporenburg was docklands islands stand-in as trade center. The area was formed for in-dustrial and harbor locations serving trades with Holland’s colonies. It has witnessed a rapid growth on the area’s economy, especially after the develop-ment of the deep water harbor in 1876. The quay was designed to some modern efficient require-ments for loading and unloading with a deep water construction. However the harbor could no longer survive. After World War II, it moved to the city’s western docklands and some new indus-tries appeared in the area which made it less busy and disuse in 1970s.

The Planning

In 1996, the decision was made to convert the Borneo and Sporenburg from a no longer used harbor to a completely high residential neighborhood, Due to the inactive harbor and the need of residential housing. The urban setting presented a very high density of 100 units per hector ( 3 times the density of a typical sub-urban development) and a low-rise housing, each with a door opening on the streets.

These requirements resulted in a design done by west 8, which featured a harmonic connection between the built and un-built forms. The west 8 plan got the in-spiration from villages on the former zuiderzee, where small houses oriented toward the water with a pulsing relation between the out and in-door spaces.

More than 100 architects and planners contributed in the planning procedure together with the public, creating some new typologies and urban spaces for the middle class families. The plan is divides 3 “sculp-ture blocks” zones known as the spinix, pacman and fountainhead, creating important landmarks with a collective of open spaces in the form of courtyards and greenery. In fact, the water surrounds the docks func-tions as leading public space, open for Amsterdam boating culture.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Range of stakeholders

In this new redevelopment, the plan targets a high density and low-rise buildings. This new housing type is a catching eye for developers and a massive demand for the market. The consumers have diverse options re-flects a sense of local character with modern homes. It offers compact housing and narrow streets that provide a sense of safety for children and families. Some houses facing canals have waterfront access, and several bridg-es accommodate pedestrian and cycle traffic. A school and a house for elder citizens have been integrated to the area, while 30% of the dwellings are subsidized social housing. The plan is encourages middle class families and couples (Kusumawijaya, 2007)

The development

The development of Borneo Sporenburg has been a very effective process. The choice of west 8 was a totally new risk for the nether land’s history. Such a high dense in dwellings and a diverse range of housing codes have never happened before in the area. The experience has had a significant impact on Dutch urban planning and free plots are now often included into new planned neighborhoods in the Netherlands.

West 8

West 8 designed the master plan of Bornea and Sporenburg. It could successfully bring out the sense of diversity to the urban structure of the city’s streets and buildings typologies. The framework was done with over 100 architects.Free land was available was available for on which private individuals could build their own houses under strict design codes. These individuals consulted with the architects in organized workshops, challenging them to meet their needs by responding creatively to the design code.

THE DEVELOPMENT

Borneo Sporenburg is a predominately residen-tial development with 2,500 housing units. Its linear parcels lie along docks and provide a waterscape as well as a streetscape.

The concept revolves around having linear par-cels of single unit housing. The fundamental unit of Borneo Sporenburg is the single-family row-house. To avoid monotonous visuals, typologies repeat in parcels of 5-12. To break up the parcels of single unit homes, dense apartment blocks intrude these strokes and create a more inter-esting movement both visually and physically. These apartment blocks create diversity and offer alternatives to the patio house living style. These superblocks also differ in orientation.

CONCEPT

One of the most appealing features of Borneo Sporenburg is the 60 “free parcels” section. These 60 parcels are allocated to private owners. They may build distinctive buildings within these plots. However, they must abide by the building codes and design preconditions of the area. In contrast to the monotonous 5-12 parcels of the other areas, this streetscape is fine grained with the individual characteristics of each building, yet aggregated into one element.

Bridges were designed to perpendicularly con-nect these parallel developments.

ResidentialYacht ClubSchoolCommercialSports centerRestaurantsApartment blockMedical institute

Functions Access

CONCEPT

Roads Green Space

Semi-public

Private

Public

CONCEPT

Private spaces are created within the dwelling.Semi-public spaces predominately exist as c

ouryards in multi storey housing.Public space often takes a water front character.

Green belts have been slashed across the project to create some open spaces for public.

The personality of Borneo and Sporenburg can be felt amongst the patios and roof gardens of its buildings, amongst the striking views of the waterfront and its activities, and it’s interesting facades.

The variety of façade designs and materials alone with the imposition of schools, open areas and larger blocks provide discontinuity in the lineari-ty and repetitiveness, making it more stimulating.

It is safe due to the streets always being over-looked, and it is easy to navigate due to its simple linear nature, making it comfortable for both residents and visitors.

In its aesthetics it adopts a postmodern interpreta-tion of the old canal belt. It has transcended its past dockland characteristic in a modern residential development. Contemporary architecture from around the world has contributed to its designs in the form of famous architects. This is island-living Dutch-style: dense but comfortable.

The streets are narrow and made of stone. Parking takes up minimum outdoor space. Public green lacks as the project prioritizes private outdoor space.

CHARACTER

Single unit typologies

Apartment Blocks

60 free parcels

West 8 originally planned to have a fine grained rhythm of a variety of typologies and facades for the project. Architects all over the world were assigned to design these. However it was later decided that the project will only consist of a few most popular types of units and be repeated in rows of 5-12. Initially this created monotonous horizontal units in contrary to the desired sequential single vertical units. This horizontal continuity has however been broken up by resi-dents using plants and areas of defensible spaces with benches or toys. The streetscape is less diverse than it could have been. But it contributes to a more wholesome composition of coherence.

In proportion, each unit is taller than it is wide. The typologies play with space as they seize it from the outside and release into the house itself. High ceilings, patios, courtyards and roof top gardens are a pleasant surprise in a dense development like Borneo Sporenburg.

TYPOLOGY

Single unit typologies

© Städtebau-Institut, Prof. Dr. Franz Pesch,

Concepts of different architectects contributing to the variety of typologies.

Apartment Blocks

The building, of impressive size, incorporates 214 apartments distributed over thirteen floors and an underground parking lot To allow natural light to reach even the lowest floors and the inner courtyard of the building, it is raised on two sides to create a central fold increasing the available light.Despite the strong prevalence of empty spaces (openings, loggias, windows)over full (opaque parts of the façade), “The Whale” looks like a solid with an essentially even, undifferentiated surface.

60 free parcels

Large-scale masterplans are often subdivided into development parcels to bring benefits in terms of the speed and value of the development. They can also bring design benefits including variety and diversity. Borneo offers 60 free parcels for individual owners to design homes of their choice within planning laws.

Compared to the rest of the 2500-unit Borneo Sporenburg housing development on the docks, it’s by far the most humane, creative and attractive sec-tion in the neighborhood.

At least 30-50% of each dwelling is open space, such as a patio or courtyard at high or low level. Parking is only on the property, none on the street, providing a much more appealing walk or bike ride to and from the city center 15 minutes (by bike) away

TYPOLOGY

TYPOLOGY

Paths and directions between significant points meshed along with the linear corridors along the settlements create the framework of the roads on Borneo Sporenburg. However, the building layout clearly takes priority over the roads and car park-ing layout.

Parking does not take up much of its outdoor space. Apartment blocks offer underground parking. A few areas have on-street car parking. Low-rose terraces houses have internal car ports. These have been made more pleasant by innova-tively designed porches doors and gates to suit the character each individual house.

INFRASTRUCTURE AND MOVEMENT

Houses faces internal canals have the luxury of private waterfront access.Pedestrian pathways and bicycle lanes provide cater well to the public. The peninsulas are con-nected by 3 bridges. West 8 designed 2 of these bridges. One low bridge was designed for cyclists and handicapped and another high bridge to al-low sailboats to access the marina. These bridges are strictly pedestrian; the design for Borneo Sporenburg de-emphasizes reliance on automo-biles and encourages bicycling or walking

Conclusions

The controversy prevailing this project, which ad-dresses the need for high-density housing through limiting traffic and utilizing unused land, is related to the complaint about the lack of open spaces. The project requires every unit/parcel in West 8 to con-tain between 30-50% space for light to enter instead of large open spaces in the area. Residents are seen to use streets and sidewalks as gathering areas. Most of the public open space of the project has a linear form. This can seem monotonous and dull, except in the case of water front spaces.

The master plan lacks nodes where different forms and functions meet to create an interesting intersec-tion in terms of urban space. The apartment build-ings do achieve this in form, but not in function.

Originally, the plan was to have a wide variety of hous-ing types, though finally it was limited to six popular types, which is criticized for the risk of repetition, and forming horizontal facades instead of vertical ones.

The lack of mixed land use in the project contradicts its initial idea of limiting car usage. Residents are forced to own cars to reach facilities that are not offered in this development.

Bibiliography

http://www.west8.nl/projects/borneo_sporenburg/ http://www.amsterdamdocklands.com/navigation/Architectuur/BorneoSporenburg_main.html http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20110118095356/http:/www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/borneo-sporenburg http://www.urbandesigncompendium.co.uk/borneosporenburg http://www.uniroma2.it/didattica/labaca1/deposito/Case_a_schiera_II-3.pdf http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/si/grundstudium/beispiele/pp_borneosporenburg.pdf http://eng.archinform.net/projekte/6065.htm http://people.umass.edu/latour/Netherlands/livingstone/index.html

http://www.archnewsnow.com/features/images/Feature0090_02x.jpg http://sigitkusumawijaya.blogspot.com/ http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?sid=5527081e-