Tall & Urban News

In Amsterdam, ‘De Oosterlingen’ block will assemble seven residential buildings with a mixed-use program, creating a green human-centric street on Oostenburg Island, a formerly industrial area.

MVRDV's design allows each building to express its own character with varying heights, roof shapes, and façades made of wood, glass, recycled brick, or bio-based composite while still clearly forming a family. The buildings are stepped, with terraces leading up from the lowest buildings to the tower at one end. The roofs of the lower buildings will be activated with gardens, an apple orchard, urban farming, or a rooftop forest. Nesting boxes for house sparrows, swifts, and bats will also be integrated into various façades.

Emulating the historic warehouses of Amsterdam’s Oostenburg Island, a number of the façades open up by means of folding shutters and canopies. Similarly, balconies and other features appear as if they have been created by "folding" the building’s skin.

Construction of the project is expected to begin in late 2022. 

For more on this story, go to Designboom.