The brief for this neighbourhood prescribed an eight-storey apartment complex adjacent to a park and, behind it, a green residential area of reduced traffic flow with a central parking zone for 100 cars. It was evident to us that in similar realized projects in Leidsche Rijn, the contrast between high-rise and single-family dwellings was simply too great. Furthermore, the presence of a central parking zone in a ‘car-free’ district was difficult to reconcile.
By cutting the apartment complex’s volume obliquely and placing the parts side-by-side, the connection with the ‘residential park’ was improved and the capacity of the parking garage underneath was doubled. Thus, the surplus parking zone planned for the centre of the project could be shifted underneath the apartments, and a practically car-free area achieved. An internal street is created above the garage and between the two linear volumes of the ‘boomerang’ building. A vehicular access road loops through the park, beginning and ending in the garage where parking space for the whole development is located. The garage therefore becomes an integral component of the plan for the residents of the park and ‘boomerang’ alike.
By organising the project in this way, an improved relationship between the two zones of the project with their different housing typologies is achieved. The height of the apartment block is halved so it no longer blocks the sun from the park dwellings. At the same time, the residents in the park area enjoy the advantages of a practically car-free neighbourhood yet still have the use of a covered parking space.
