Informing this design for a rehab centre on the banks of the Amsterdam Rijnkanaal at Papendorp is the process a drug addict goes through during treatment. This process breaks down into three stages, each of which has its own place and appropriate ambience in the rehabilitation centre. The first stage, that of 'voluntary confinement', is enacted in the sealed-off core of the building. Here, in the reception centre, addicts are literally given protection against themselves. The next stage is therapy. Physically this enfolds the reception centre and now gives some sort of view of the surroundings. Resocializing the ex-addicts makes up the third and last stage. This takes place in the shared houses, this time with a magnificent prospect of the canal. Small bridges link these halfway houses with the dike, so giving direct access to society at large.

Taken together the stages are a unit which, analogous to the process of rehabilitation, only comes into its own as a single entity. Tying the stages together and arguably carrying the design as a whole is an orthogonal spiral, a wall that unrolls outwards from the centre. Countering this movement is a system of passages for the staff.

On arrival, the new patients are conducted from the entrance building along this system of passageways to whichever stage of treatment is applicable. This is the only time addicts make use of these passages. Once inside, they then have no idea of how they might escape. Only in time do they get to know the building, though it is expected that by then the urge to decamp has lessened considerably.

Institution: Amsterdam
Tutors: Hans Tupker, Herman Zeinstra & René van Zuuk
Specialization: architecture