2017 - ongoing
Lieven
2017 - ongoing
Lieven
Lieven is an urban campus in the West of Amsterdam with housing for starters and students as well as a café, laundry bar and gym. Bureau B+B was responsible for the design of the public spaces, courtyards and gardens including a sustainable urban water management system.
Location
Amsterdam
Client
De Key
Year
2017 - ongoing
Collaboration
Arons en Gelauff architecten
Surface Area
2500 m2
Located between a metro station and the neighbourhood’s centre, Lieven offers an alternative public route through a lush and green garden. This creates a unique mix of urban vibrancy and collective living in an urban block with an abundance of green at its doorstep. The inner courtyards of Lieven show a smooth transition between the publicly accessible areas and the areas for collective use situated in the heart of the two blocks. The materialization indicates intuitively the main and secondary routes. Changes in topography distinguish various spaces; places to meet, play or relax in the shade. Lieven does not only offer a new impulse to this part of the city in terms of housing programme, but the inner garden also contributes significantly to a greener, healthier and more shared, democratic city.
The inner world of Lieven consists of a series of spaces with different dynamics. On either side of the central neighbourhood square you will find semi-public courtyards. The custom designed fences blend with the vegetation of the gardens, subtly telling visitors that they enter a communal, semi-private space and inviting them in. The front parts of the courtyards have a collective character. Here there is plenty of space for meet-ups and recreation like a neighbourhood barbecue. Gravel paved footpaths subtly lead towards the back of the courtyards with more quiet and secluded spots where residents can retreat to read, work in the garden or just lounge.
By making use of the canyon-like space, the vertical elements and the filtered light, the Lieven patios form its own micro-climate within the buildings of the urban campus. The large stones, grasses and ferns and the Nothofagus antarctica trees give the lower part of the patio’s the enchanting atmosphere of a mountain forest. Lushly climbing Aristolochia macrophylla turns the open stairwell into a semi-transparent green wall that guides visitors to the higher floors offering wide views over the courtyard gardens.
