Wilton flats: transformation to senior apartments

Wider galleries and larger balconies

Willems Vastgoedonderhoud is transforming three Wilton flats in Schiedam into future-proof apartments for seniors. The first flat with 39 apartments has now been completed after a thorough ten-month renovation.

The contract was tendered by housing corporation Woonplus through a competition. "We were asked to make a plan for this," says project manager Robin Hassankhan of Willems Vastgoedonderhoud. "An important part of our plan was to widen the galleries to make them more accessible for walkers and mobility scooters. We also moved the main entrance to the other side of the apartment. The building's original entrance was on Park Road, which is a busy shopping street. In addition, because of this intervention, all the apartments are now accessible by elevator and the street on the side of the new entrance becomes a bit livelier." On the widened galleries, residents can park their rollators or mobility scooters, and a charging point has been installed in front of each front door. And because there is more space, people can also create a seating area here for more social interaction.

The entire building was gutted and renovated, with only the frame remaining. Larger balconies were also mounted to the steel structure. Hassankhan: "The original flats had small, indoor balconies. We added those to the master bedroom. Then we added new balconies of 1.5 by 5 meters. Actually, we left only the shell in place; everything else is new."

Well insulated

Sustainability played a major role in this project. For example, the homes are off gas and the installation is suitable for connection to district heating in the future. That heat network is not yet in place. Hassankhan: "The facade finish is made of preserved softwood. We deliberately did not use hardwood. All new window frames are triple-glazed. The facade is very well insulated: because we wanted to conceal the steel construction in the facade, there was extra space for insulation."

In mid-November, Willems will begin remodeling the second apartment. Preparations for this are in full swing. The delivery of materials proved to be a major problem with the first apartment. "Then you sometimes have to shift the schedule a bit. For example, the wood for the facade was delivered eight weeks later. The aluminum window frames were also poorly available. Such things cost a lot of energy in work preparation." 

There were also technical challenges during construction. "We are building a whole new structure against an old, existing building. In practice, it then turns out that the old building was not built quite neatly, so the drawings were not correct. In terms of engineering, a lot of time went into that. We are very pleased with this beautiful end result and so are the first residents. On to the next two blocks!"