Home care apartments Bolsward

This assignment contains 22 apartments and three livingrooms and is initiated by Philadelphia Zorg. A foundation that helps and supports mentally disabled persons.
The support varies from e few hours support to daily intensive care. Every unit contains a bathroom, kitchen and outdoor space.
The complex is situated directly behind the original ‘bolwerken’ of the city center of Bolsward. The main shape of the complex bends parallel to the autonomous shape of the ‘bolwerk’. By elevating the building with steps the ramp of the ‘bolwerk’ is related. This way the building is part of the context, with two times an elevation of a story. Where the ‘bolwerk’ is e few meters high the storage is situated. Above the livingrooms and balconies which overlook the pedestrian route. They live between the green of the trees of this park-like pedestrian area.

The building has also a city-side with a robust character. The apartments and the central living rooms are oriented towards the sheltered park-side, the wide traffic space is oriented towards the city-side of the complex; the side where people will meet. The green surrounding will bring some of the needed tranquility. Here we applied wooden cladding. The wooden balconies are like hammocks in the green park.
The entrance is placed at the city-side of the building. The entrances of the apartments are reached from the central corridor with an open view towards the city-center. The wood used at the park-side is also used in the movable shutters. The urban side of the complex shows a tranquil image created by the concrete parapet that accentuate the horizontality of the building. An all-embracing frame, made out of nature stone slates, connects both sides and accentuates the gradual rising of the volume. In addition, the material refers to the the slates on the Martini-church around the corner, which forms a prominent part of the city-center of Bolsward.

Ordering party: Corporation Welkom/Nieuw Wonen
User: Philadelphia Zorg
Location: Bolsward
Realization: 2006
Photography: Peter van der Knoop