23 Town Houses in Amsterdam by Atelier Kempe Thill

Amsterdam Osdorp, which was built in the sixties, has been undergoing a program of urban renewal to create a bigger variety of individual dwellings for the middle class. The question to be addressed here is how to deal with the urban and architectural heritage of post-war modernism? Their solution is to demolish existing buildings with small apartments and replace them with more contemporary homes that maintain the urban street profile, but in addition, incorporate underground parking. The plan is being designed and supervised by a Rotterdam-based architecture practice, De Nijl. This building project by Atelier Kempe Thill tries to match with the collective architecture of Osdorp, whilst allowing for some individuality with separate front doors and screened terraces. Each apartment is approached by a long front garden, which is met by a double height kitchen/living area to respond to contemporary forms of living. Partitions within the interiors are flexible and allow for multiple arrangements, whilst corridors have been avoided to save space. The project promotes a light way of living, with the users being able to create their own interior space due to the indeterminacy of the architecture.  

Images: ArchDaily

Fabric Facade Studio Apartment by CC-Studio, Studio TX and Rob Veening

Almere, a short distance from Amsterdam in the Netherlands has ambitious plans as the youngest city in the country. The city, which has existed for less than two decades, has shown a commitment to architectural innovation and experimentation. Self-build projects are actively encouraged, making personal visions reality, in tight budgets and affordable plots. One such project is the Fabric Facade Studio Apartment by Dutch Architects CC-Studio and Studio TX and artist Rob Veening. The house is built on one of the 350 plots designated for construction by private builders, an initiative driven by Alderman Adri Duivesteijn, in the Homerus quarter in Almere. Strips of perforated fabric, made of teflon, are designed to flap and move in the wind, creating a dynamic fluidity to the facade; "The extremely durable, non-combustible, residual material comes from rolls of PTFE (Teflon) coated fiberglass fabric, used in the industrial manufacture of conveyors belts for the food industry. This special material was completely sponsored by Verseidag-Indutex from Krefeld, Germany. The 5m long rolls (about 1200m2 gross) were cut by the principal and cc-studio into strips and placed as overlapping shingles and tacked on a backing of osb panels. The flexible material moves with wind, creating a lively image."

Images: Dezeen

Pavilion for an artist by DHL Architecture

This mirrored installation, created at a peculiar scale of 1:2, neither model nor building, is one of the realised winning entries for the Atelier Malkovich ideas competition to design an innovative and functional studio for a contemporary artist. The pavilion below is seen as an uninterrupted archive corridor, where the artist can roam through their orderly labyrinth, within the soft warm core of the strong, hard and reflective shell. The exterior is camouflaged with shiny mirror, creating repetitive images of the surrounding landscape. The panelled doors are almost invisible, which makes negotiating the entrance feel like you are discovering a hidden world, where only the owner knows it's secrets.

Images: ArchDaily