The development area of Europapark is situated southeast of the city of Groningen, near the city centre, and spans approximately 5 hectares. In the northwestern section, the new residential neighbourhood De Linie is being developed. In the area between the Verlengde Meeuwerderweg and the Oude Winschoterdiep, around 110 ground-level homes are being built. The goal is to strike a balance between the individual and the collective domain within a green-urban atmosphere. The residential streets are relatively narrow and without front gardens. All homes are oriented east–west, and the plot size allocated to each house is limited.
‘Het licht begint te wandelen door het huis en raakt de dingen aan. Wij eten ons vroege brood gedoopt in de zon.’ - Ida Gerhardt
(Light begins to walk through the house and touches things. We eat our early bread dipped in the sun.)
The limited plot size and the urban design, with its sensitive transition between public and private domains, form the foundation for a plan in which house, garden, and hedge are designed as a unified whole. The house as part of the garden; the garden as a room of the house, enclosed by a hedge. A long, narrow two-story volume spans the full depth of the plot, dividing the garden into two unequal parts: a generous southwest-facing garden that also accommodates car parking behind a hedge, and a narrow strip with small patios to the northeast, just wide enough to bring light into the house. At the driveway, the green hedge becomes a movable structure to allow car access.
Referencing the site’s history of timber processing, the house is clad in black timber siding. Like a tree trunk with stubs where limbs were cut, the three-meter-deep main volume has extensions on either side, at the points where the program calls for a wider span. From the street to the fireplace, the internal layout follows a gradient from public to private. An entry hall spanning the full width of the house acts as a buffer from the street. Through a void, the basement-level workspace is visible from the street. The dining, cooking, and living spaces on the ground floor and the bedrooms above each relate differently to the garden and patios, allowing daylight to enter the home in unique ways throughout the day.
w/ daad architecten
