11-9-2003
The Row House, a widely appreciated, traditional Dutch typology, is up for reconsideration.

Over 80% of the people in the Netherlands desire to live in a suburb: in a house with a garden, cars in front of the door, kids that can play safely etc. But there is a remarkable ambiguity in the way the Dutch are dealing with sub-urbanization. The strategies are laid down in a spatial planning bill called VINEX, which states that all new housing should emerge in direct proximity of existing centers. The ‘Consumer’ should be taken into account and the ‘Market’ should dictate the production. Compact cities, efficient infrastructure and a relatively intact landscape should be the outcome. In the early 9ties, when this policy was conceived, auto mobility was a phenomenon that should be repressed as much as possible. As a consequence the position of the Car in VINEX was never resolved.

The densities in VINEX are too high to successfully reward all consumer wishes: suburbs without gardens are being developed. Within VINEX the roads and parking consume 37% of the surface; more than 55% of the textures is solid: tarmac or concrete or bricks. At the same time the densities are too low to consider the condition urban. Double use of the ground might be a solution.

Roof Road NT is an attempt to resolve the dilemma of creating an area that is ‘Car Free’ and Fundamentally Accessible at the same time. Roof Road NT is wonderfully simple in concept, but surprisingly complicated when it comes to implementation. The scheme consists of approximately 210 single-family houses in 4 categories/types and 80 apartments in the VINEX area Leidschenveen, close to The Hague.

The trick is to put the access roads and the parking on the roof of Row Houses. By combining infrastructure and building, by turning the roof into the road 25% is gained in terms of the total surface: a quarter extra space compared to the normal VINEX! This surplus space can now be used in better ways: for public or semipublic space, for playgrounds and for more extensive individual gardens.

An other asset of this reinvention of the Row House is the possibility to escape the compactness that usually comes with the typical layout of the VINEX developments; a psychological opening-up of the mostly claustrophobic environment. By positioning the driveway on top of the houses a wonderful panoramic view is guaranteed: a roof with a view. The ground level is car free and kid friendly.

As a result of the top-down access, the good old step gable can be re-introduced in a more literal fashion.

NL Architects
Pieter Bannenberg, Walter van Dijk, Kamiel Klaasse, Mark Linnemann

Collaborators:
Martijn van den Bosch, Benjamin Dillenburger, Kirsten Huesig, Jennifer Petersen, Johannes Ritzer, Misa Shibukawa, Martin Saarinen, Katharina Stepien.