Dal basso in alto, a sinistra, livello 1a e 1b; a destra, schema del sistema di flussi e livello 2a. In alto sezioni di “De Citadel”.
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he town of Almere, a Dutch new town built from the early 1970s onwards on a polder and now the eighth biggest city in the Netherlands in terms of importance and number of inhabitants (a population of 180,000 at the moment, expected to rise to 250,000 in 2015), is betting everything on architecture. The city, which was salvaged from the water to meet the housing demand near Amsterdam (just 30 km away), has enjoyed the highest growth rate in the country over the last few years with approximately 3,000 new inhabitants moving there each year. Designed to be a polycentric city with plenty of green landscape connecting its various centres, Almere is now a particularly fertile area with plenty of attractions for contemporary architects and town planners, who can take full advantage of plenty of freedom and large spaces to exercise their creative powers. Rem Koolhaas won the competition to design the master plan for the city centre in 1999, an extremely extensive area between the lake and existing neighbourhoods. Koolhaas worked on a stratified plan accommodating all the various functions, with the road traffic, streets and car parks on the lower level, the pedestrian and commercial facilities on the middle level, and housing up on the top level. He assembled a number of architects to help him design some of the buildings, such as the Japanese architect Kazuyo Sejima from the Sanaa firm, who designed the new theatre, the English architect William Alsop, who designed a hotel and auditorium, and the Dutch architects De Architekten Cie, René van Zuuk and Claus + Kaan Architekten, who worked on some of the housing blocks. In 2000, Christian de Portzamparc was asked to build Block 1, one of the main and most extensive projects right in the heart of the city, spread over a square site measuring 130 m along the sides. Embracing the basic concept underscoring the master plan, de Portzamparc fitted into Koolhaas’s overall layout while designing a new cityscape drawing on a soft and ethereal architectural idiom. The principle of layering creates the “Citadel” structure, discreetly catering for the 45.000 square metres of mixed services and housing facilities incorporated in the complex. Divided into four sectors by the intersection of different roads, the block is permeable to traffic, lights, perspectives and other operations. The designer set out to “avoid the wall effect” by working on three levels of functions: traffic and trade beneath the green carpet and housing above it, sectioned off by the four cuts made by the roads running across it. The two floors of commercial activities on the intermediate level face onto the pedestrian areas, each with its own identity working along the lines of differences so as to combat the monotony of standardisation. The grass surface brings everything together and acts as a support for the housing units, which complete the roof over the block by creating a new hill contour. Appropriation, diversification and reference systems are the guidelines coordinating the layout of housing buildings, like a sort of Kasbah. This leaves the inhabitants free to combine various building features, ranging from loggias to patios and terraces etc., all in their favourite materials and colours. There is an eightstorey tower in the middle of the block, a watchful presence breaking down the horizontality of the suspended lawn projecting across the city and lake like an authentic mountain pasture. This gives a new dimension to living as the landscape, skies and light all blend smoothly together; beneath it we have the shops and more traffic, the hectic and frenetic reality of city life. Elena Cardani
Casla
From the bottom up, left, levels 1a and 1b; rights, diagram of the system of flows and 2a level. Top, sections of “De Citadel”.
Sopra, viste aeree di Almere con l’intervento di de Portzamparc individuato dal tappeto verde. Sotto, il concetto di tappeto sospeso.
Above, aerial views of Almere with de Portzamparc’s project shown by the green carpet. Below, concept of suspended carpet.
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