This plan for 'De Wijkerbaan' shopping mall in Beverwijk offers an answer to the flagging existence of many shopping centres in Dutch post-war districts. To arrest the negative spiral, such centres will have to specialize in the everyday facilities attendant on shopping. Here, besides shops there is room for other amenities such as a medical centre, a crèche, a police post and sports facilities. Proximity is just as important a quality as accessibility. So I have intensified the urban network at this locality. Clustering the programme in a single building generates a local social condenser. There is added vibrancy and surveillance as a result, visits to different amenities can be combined and shared use made of parking facilities and public space.

Specialization requires buildings of an order other than that of the buildings on site at present. Once the current shopping centre has been demolished, the amenities can be dispersed over the redevelopment area between two existing residential high-rises. The new building's concept is driven by vertical and horizontal relationships. These serve as supports for its physical and programmatic composition. The horizontal relationship provides a principal subdivision into a programme for housing and a programme for amenities. The vertical relationship splits the building into three zones: large, medium and small. These zones contain neutral and polyvalent spaces able to accept other forms of use in the future. Both the internal and external spaces are screened off from the outside world by a glass shield wrapped around the entire building. At the same time, the ensuing reflection and transparency lend the building an air of independence and extroversion. Old and new become one.

Place of education: AvB Amsterdam
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Henk Meijer, Niek van Vugt, Herman Zeinstra, Rik van Dolderen & Arnoud Gelauff