65 rental apartments in Anna's Hoeve, Hilversum

65 rental apartments with optimal views of nearby greenery. This is the result of seizing opportunities and "creative puzzling," as architect Leendert-Jan Huyser calls it.

The 65 social rental apartments in Hilversum's Anna's Hoeve neighborhood are being built on behalf of Dudok Wonen. This tenants and buyers association asked three architects to provide a vision for the filling of 'spot 2.31B'. How could this plot be divided up efficiently while respecting the municipal envelope? It was TVA architects who provided the best answer. They designed a two-story building in which the parking case is placed behind the building, encased in greenery.

Plan layout 

"To realize the desired program of Dudok Wonen, a straightforward gallery apartment would undoubtedly have been the simplest solution," says Huyser, architect of TVA architects. "But this would have been impossible to fit on the plot and would not have met the principles as formulated in the image quality plan. Also, the spatial quality with views of the park and Anna's Mountain would not be utilized. But by choosing residential floor plans with a so-called exchange nave, all three-room apartments now have a view of the public green and sufficient life has been created on the gallery side."

A beautiful green interior area

The two building sections open onto the view, Anna's Mountain. The greenery of this landscape is "pulled into" the common inner area, so to speak. This creates a green semi-public inner area that increases the quality of living and social interaction. By connecting the two buildings with two superimposed walkways, an entrance, stairwell and elevator shaft will suffice, which in turn contributes to the efficiency of the plan.

Steel and limestone construction

For BAM Wonen Bouwen op Maaten, the split bay dimensions do have consequences. A concrete shell with wide slab floors is now not an option. "That is why a construction of steel and sand-lime brick was chosen," says Walter Veensma, project manager of BAM Wonen Bouwen op Maat. "The chosen combination of precast partly supported on the steel construction and partly cast-in-place is a laborious job, though. All these parts now have to run with the shell construction cycle and that does create challenges in the execution of this project."

A tangle of pipes

More challenging is the chosen installation, which consists of a collective generation system with an all-electric water-to-water heat pump on the flat roof of the buildings. The generation system is managed from an underground technical room. Veensma: "This heating and cooling system involves a gigantic tangle of pipes. It is an immense challenge for the installers to organize this tangle and keep it orderly." Thanks to good preparations, the work is proceeding smoothly and on schedule. "The structural work has now been completed and finishing work has started on the lower floors. This is where the exterior facades in red brick now appear. These give immediate color to the building and already give an impression of the future atmosphere."