WATER VOOR WONEN

The entry “Water voor wonen” (water for dwelling) by Sascha Glasl and Tjeerd J. Haccoû received the 1st prize.
Very special, though at the same time typically Dutch, is the task with which the province of Noord- Holland sees itself confronted in the coming decades. Until 2040, 200.000 homes are to be built while 2000 hectares have to be cleared for the storage of excess surface water. We came up
with a concept linking up the building and the water assignment. The principle here is that farmers, in exchange for storing water on their land, are given the opportunity to develop homes on this water. In doing so we want to bring an end to relations that are generally very distorted.
Normally farmers are saddled with the burdens of water retention, while the revenues from building houses are for the property of developers, which in almost all cases goes at the expense of the landscape. In our suggestion for test locations in the Wijdewormer polder, agricultural lots and the water buffers due to be constructed will be used as lots for buildings. Collectively, agricultural entrepeneurs are to realize a certain quantity of open water behind their yards, often patterned as a neat system of ditches. The land between this water and their grounds will be sold by the farmers as building lots on behalf of the development of CO² neutral houses. The architecture of these dwellings is camouflaged from the old and traditional street view. Part of the profits of this housing can be invested in solar panels, new occupants will feel more involved with agriculture and will through a home-owners´ asscociation also invest in cycle and footpaths.

team
Sascha Glasl
Tjeerd Haccou
year
2009
date of completion
2010
client
province of North Holland