B-Proud / Mixed-Use

The Hague

More information

The number of inhabitants and working population in The Hague continue to increase in the coming years. The municipality chose De Binckhorst as the ideal place to make this growth possible. It will become a vibrant city district. New forms of living with collective facilities and a park in front of the door are the key to success. The area will also become a partly car-free zone. A New York like atmosphere on Binck Avenue with a high-rise skyline will determine the welcome image from the new tunnel. On the other side, the Poolsterstraat, offers a softer atmosphere. This exciting place can then combine the two worlds and transition from highly urbanized streets to the park on the Trekvliet zone. This is a task that requires a careful design. We are proud to contribute to these emerging developments with our project, B-Proud.

B-Proud

B-PROUD is located at the Binckhorstlaan – future Binck Avenue – with borders on Mercuriusweg, Poolsterstraat and the Jongeneel plot. The project received a provisional reservation with a minimum of 750 homes, plus around 20.000m2 of commercial program, so that the space in our plot that us currently occupied by an multi-tenant office is brought back. We will start the construction of B-Proud in 2021.

Acrchitecture

The architectural design of B-PROUD consists of a stacking of all-sided blocks. Each block has a recognizable façade composition and expression. This refers to the raw, industrial character of the Binckhorst. The concept of the towers is a “vertical city”. This means apartment blocks intertwined with community spaces. We positioned the volumes in such a way that as many homes as possible get an unobstructed view. The so-called ‘urban-layer’ runs up to 40 meters. It includes a 9m high plinth with two building floors clearly recognizable by a spacious arcade. On the three floors above the plinth there is room for a variety of uses. This way we guarantee maximum flexibility in its organization. The courtyards on the other hand are already defined to be used as outside space.

Beyond the 12th floor start the actual towers, that follow the rules of the Eyeline-Skyline memorandum to achieve a more slender building form. The mid-rise block has a height of approximately 70 meters and the high-rise reaches 140m. Through an indented or projecting volume, every transition between the blocks and the crown of both towers, receives a different detailing and a special program infill. This way, B-Proud distinguishes itself within the housing supply and also responds to important trends, such as sharing economy, flexibility and sustainability.

Facilities

The shifted layers reinforce these trends with facilities such as care homes, artisan homes (home-work), sports & wellness, and a restaurant with outdoor spaces and roof gardens. The design also provides different semi-public outdoor spaces. First, we designed the roof on the 5th floor as a common outside area for the homes on this layer and the two layers above. Everyone in the building is invited to use the collective green roof through open external stairs. Its sheltered location offers residents the perfect opportunity to maintain city gardens and even grow their own vegetables. Then there are two large communal outdoor spaces on the 8th floor for the inhabitants of these and surrounding layers. These are an invitation to meet and relax within a limited distance from your own home. Finally, on the 12th and 22th floors, people living on the higher-up apartments can use two smaller gardens. The mixed housing types and opportunities for sharing should enable stronger connections between the residents of B-Proud.

Mobility / Sustainability

To keep the street as free as possible from parked bicycles and scooters, B-Proud also provides a garage over three levels in the heart of the building. Because it’s close to the cores it gives access to the residential layers. We largely reserved the two underground floors for a car parking garage. These are partly for the residents but mainly for users of the facilities and offices. Thus, we solved a large part of the parking requirement and the rest will be in an external parking structure in the neighborhood. Achieving a WELL Silver assessment was an objective. However, the WELL Silver assessment has never before been applied on a residential building in The Netherlands. The goal is to reach an EPC of 0.2.

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Living