From addiction clinic to housing

In October 2019, housing corporation Mitros purchased the building to develop rental apartments for social and middle rental. Construction company Van Wijnen was brought in to make the plans possible.

With its large wooden facade, the old Victas building is a striking feature in the streetscape. Not for nothing did JDdV Architects win the Rietveld Prize with it in 2013. "We have a huge growth ambition and eventually want to realize 86 apartments here. It will mainly be two- and some three-room apartments," explains real estate developer Maarten de Kruif of Mitros. The housing corporation was quickly approached by construction company Van Wijnen, which already had a plan ready for the building. "We were previously working on the project for another potential buyer. When that purchase fell through and Mitros became the new owner, we approached them. That way we could do something for each other," says Remi van der Pol, Manager of Client & Market at Van Wijnen. In the end, Mitros did indeed choose to work with Van Wijnen and an overall plan was developed. Demolition work began in November 2020.

Reused as much as possible

Little will change to the existing appearance of the building. The shell will remain intact, although additional windows and a central entrance will be added. The opportunity will also be taken to green the exterior with a shared courtyard garden and additional greenery at the front. The layout of the building will change quite a bit, says Van der Pol: "It is based on an addiction clinic with offices, bedrooms and communal areas. That is unsuitable for apartments. We're going to rebuild it as two- and three-bedroom apartments with their own front doors. We are reusing as many materials as possible and we also reused the air handling system."

Not much is needed to bring the installations up to standard, since this is a young building. District heating will be the main heating element, and there will be PV panels on the roofs. These will be connected to the main collective connection.

Smart use of space

A major challenge within the project is the small construction site, Van der Pol says. Good parking and transportation management is of great importance. Materials, for example, are delivered to a construction supplier in the nearby industrial area. "Everything is delivered and disposed of as effectively as possible. That way we ensure the least possible traffic disruption and it's good from a sustainability perspective." Under the building is a parking garage with eighty parking spaces. Two of these will remain in use by Mitros, so that two shared cars can be parked here. De Kruif: "These are intended for the tenants of the apartments. Through an app, they can reserve a car. The advantage of that is that we have to create fewer parking spaces."

The project is expected to be completed by the end of this year with a total of seventy apartments. Two blocks will be temporarily rented to De Veste Foundation for young people with care needs. Once they have found other accommodation, the two towers with 34 non-self-contained units will be converted into 16 independent homes. The complex will then have a total of 86 apartments.  

Beautiful clean work walls

Commissioned by housing corporation Mitros, Van Wijnen is transforming the former center for addiction treatment on the A.B.C.straat in Utrecht into a residential complex with 86 social rental apartments. Because residents need sufficient space in addition to their living and sleeping quarters to store bicycles and other belongings, individual storage units have been built in the parking basement. The storerooms were constructed with sand-lime blocks, which were glued by Maco Lijmwerken from Heeswijk-Dinther.

The parking basement already had tightly surfaced floors. "In addition, Van Wijnen had already demolished the walls of the former technical areas, provided the dimensions and set up window frames and profiles," says Wilco Driessen, director of Maco Lijmwerken. "This allowed us to carry out our work efficiently and quickly. Three craftsmen built the clean-work walls in just one week."

The A.B.C. street is not the first project that Maco Lijmwerken has carried out for Van Wijnen. Recently, the specialist was also involved in the construction of an apartment complex in Nieuwegein.

Construction Info

Client 
Mitros, Utrecht

Architect 
MOKA Architects, Haarlem

Main contractor 
Van Wijnen, Baarn