Atelier Kempe Thill

This housing project was realized by Atelier Kempe Thill in the Dutch city of Arnhem. The site lies on the border between the attractive nineteenth-century neighborhood Spijkerkwartier and a small community park. The building volume is organized in four parallel stripes, each consisting of four more or less identical rows of terraced houses.

While the north facades are relatively closed, those facing south are quite open, so as to maximize the sunlight entering the homes. The individual gardens between the stripes are walled to guarantee enough privacy for the inhabitants. The garden walls were designed as an integral part of the architecture. Two clusters of individual storage space for bicycles are located between the stripes of houses. The homes are accessed through 3-meter-wide alleys that function as collective spaces for the inhabitants. Each alley is closed off with a small gate that marks the border between public and collective space. A compact landscape with trees and bushes stretches around the houses. It functions as a green buffer and helps to define the project as an entity.

This collective ensemble—with a clear, almost sculptural, urban form—expresses the idea of the settlement as one built structure. Furthermore, the architecture makes the residents recognizable as part of a small community instead of merely inhabiting an individual house.