'zierikzee apartment buildings', front facade


the 'zierikzee apartment buildings' by dutch studio kingma roorda architecten consists
of two apartment units situated just west of the historical center of zierikzee in the netherlands
linking up the existing neighbourhood poorambacht to the historic town. both as a reaction
to the specific character of the site and as a response to today's diverging lifestyles, the design
for this new quay can be seen as a reinterpretation of the quay typologies that can be found
through the provinces of zeeland and the netherlands.



front entrance


as big, entirely coloured warehouses clad in metal, the apartment buildings stand out
in the adjacent sea of individual quay houses.



front entrance


for the design of the buildings, the architects looked at old commercial warehouses
in trading cities such as venice (italy), bergen (norway), new york (USA), and zierkzee
(the netherlands). both the apartment are independent building volumes. the colours and
the simple shape of the windows were borrowed from the colourful warehouse architecture
of bergen. in this design, the stately venetian palazzo is fused with the sturdy scandinavian
warehouse.





the exterior of both buildings present themselves as members of one family by their
signature colour and specific treatment of the facade. inside the buildings, the interior
offers a great variety of floor plans through their specific position on the quay.



aluminium columns occupy the front facade


to heighten plasticity, the facades of the buildings were elaborated by means of a partly
self-supporting grid of large thresholds and then columns were made out of aluminium.
the grid-like surface relief seeks to nuance the contrast between the small size of the
houses and the large size of the apartment building. through the coastal sunlight,
the filmy grid creates a vivid image of the building. while the buildings are prominently
present at the quays, it is possible to look far away over the area of the upper floors.
here the view goes over the seawall to the zeeland bridge, towards the oosterschelde.



35 apartments clad in red aluminium panels.






block of quay housing units






interior hallway






aerial view of quay



detail aerial view









floor plan




floor plan








sectional view




sectional view






site plan