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Clients: VOF Brasserhout (Van Wijnen en Maasstede)
Site area: approx 14 hectare, 600 housing units

Competition winning design for an area
within the VINEX-location Ypenburg, southeast of The Hague, with
approximately 600 dwellings within a new residential district.
The plan had as its core, to retain a village like character and the fact that all housing shall be on the waterfront.
To incorporate a large number of housing, and at the same time retain its rural character, all houses are grouped around as contemporary rural houses. A total program of 595 houses is compacted within ( barely) 124 rural houses, distributed over 8 types of housestyles.
The structural plan of the area comprises of a neutral lattice of roads, waterways and paths. Two green zones, with mainroads within, cross the systematic paths and waterways. To make the autos unobtrusive, small parking spaces are spread though the area, and in some places at right angles to the paths.Most of the rural houses are placed so as to be staggered along the paths, interconnected to each other via the staggered line. At the rear, most of the houses with the gardens are placed on the waterfront. In the middle of the locality, space is made for a long stretched lake with three play islands.
In the design of Brasserhout, the profile of the roads is expressly made small, 3,5 m (one way) and 4.5m ( two way), wherein no seperate footpaths are accomodated. This accentuates the requisited small scale atmosphere of
the village in the area. When broader streets are laid, the cars ride faster, whereby speed-limit regulators have to be introduced, such as rumblers. By keeping the streets smaller, such regulators are not necessary, and more functional, high quality open spaces can be achieved. Automobiles are parked in parking-boxes, due to which the effect of their presence is reduced in the sphere of this area.
The materials chosen has a huge impact, taking into view the small scale, village atmosphere in this area, the street profiles are in baked bricks, including that for the pavements ( not segregated).
In the central area, wooden decks strenghten the rural atmosphere.