Wibaut Park

Schiedam needs housing; the Nieuwland neighbourhood offers a diversification of the supply. We create the balance between high-end living and public green space on this ample parcel by using a smart, compact combination of car parks, single family houses and apartments. This results in maximum space for a high-quality green environment while adding more than 150 units.

Park, posts and slabs
In the context of the surrounding post-tensioned slab construction, we create a park with three conservatory type residential buildings. The stunning greenery is consistent with the municipal policy, literally and figuratively ensuring a comfortable living environment. The shade cools and helps mitigate heat stress. In addition, the green landscape, with the pavement limited to the minimum, guarantees biodiversity. The water channel, lush vegetation, trees and shrubbery as a whole make a suitable biotope for small animals such as hedgehogs, shrews, voles and weasels as well as insects and birds.

The building designs ensure that the greenery winds round the buildings, in that sense a replication of the strong urban motif bordering the park. And because the residence is at ground level, a lively periphery is created for the park.

Dynamic accommodation
The three buildings are organic in shape, producing a lively interplay between architecture and landscape. A clear choice for the stacked underground parking, one-side oriented houses and apartments lends Nieuwland its distinction. It provides residents a new form of housing, a community, where the foyers of the buildings are a focal point. From the first storey on there is a diverse choice of apartment designs, with the corner units always somewhat bigger than the ones in between. There are very large corner apartment designs on the first storey, where one can scale up the living room by reducing the number of bedrooms. This, in principle, is true for all apartments: one can always combine the second bedroom and the living room, affording an even wider view over the park. With this, we have designed apartments for a mix of various target groups: starters, families, middle aged persons and seniors.

Orangery
Orangeries were the inspiration for the architecture: more glass, light colours, slender profiles and a strong base. The architecture thus supports the stacking of the various designs. The anchoring with the park and the gardens functions optimally due to space, centrally placed entrances and the two-storey family houses with private garden opening on the community garden or the park. The gardens have half-height fencing, so a chat with the neighbour is never far off. The facades of the upper structure are more rhythmic and more delicate, like the glass part of a greenhouse.

  • specification: new construction of 150 apartments
  • location: Wibautplein Schiedam
  • developer: WAAL
  • landscape design: Bosch Slabbers
  • acoustic and building physics consultant: M3E
  • mobility consultant: The FutureMobility Network
  • programme: apartments and parking garage
  • area: 15,000 m²
  • design competition: 2021