Going Dutch

Intriguing Bloembollenhof project allows varying incomes to pay their way in a rural village-type setting

AFFORDABLE HOUSING is in short supply in Canada. Creating that supply, however, need not result in an unattractive product.

In general, housing is considered “affordable” if it requires 32% or less of a household’s income, including the mortgage principle, interest, taxes and utilities costs. But in most markets, homeowners and renters spend over half of their income on shelter-related expenses. So what can architects and builders do to bring costs down?

The cost of a home depends, of course, on the pricing of its components: land, infrastructure, material, labour and landscaping. Land cost alone can easily render a project unaffordable.

Narrow house designs offer the commonly preferred characteristics of homeownership. Other options that are similar, but that do not have private ground-level entrances or private yards, such as duplexes and triplexes, are even more affordable and sustainable.

Narrow-fronted row houses are built on narrow plots, 4.3 to 6 metres wide, and share sidewalls with neighbouring structures. The narrow width makes the need for interior bearing partitions redundant, resulting in a greater flexibility in the arrangement of space. Large open spaces around the townhouse development may be planned to compensate for the lack of private spaces offered within the complex.

To see it in practice, consider the Netherlands, where land is scarce and crowded. Bloembollenhof is an affordable-housing development in the town of Vijfhuisen, a small suburb of Amsterdam designed by S333 Architecture & Urbanism. Fifty-two housing units have been placed into simple yet interesting and non-repetitive forms in the development. Houses range from large, detached forms to smaller social-housing blocks and are scattered freely, catering to several incomes and lifestyles. Additionally, it offers a cheap alternative to urban living, with easy access to amenities.

The project is part of a spatialplanning method put in place to control urban growth. Strict guidelines regulate the community’s design. The site must consist of at least 30% affordable housing, maintaining high unit density, yet also offer ample greenspace.

Appearing more as a cluster of low-density housing typologies, Bloembollenhof resembles a rural village and retains dense urban characteristics. The architects aimed to create a ‘regular irregularity’ in their plan. This allows for the housing clusters to appear less formal in nature, fostering the sense of a spontaneously built community. Houses have been placed in ways that frame communal open spaces and play areas for children. Residence views often overlook these courtyards, further connecting individual units to the broader community, and creating opportunities for parents to supervise their children from inside the home. Further, the placement of houses also creates shortcuts between major streets.

Houses are made in simple geometric forms, yet incorporate several amenities. Roof terraces and patios have been cut out of the main mass, making up for the small private gardening area. The residences also house car-parking, minimizing the presence of automobiles on the street and eliminating the need for costly parking infrastructure. To keep costs low, houses are clad in hardwood and corrugated steel.

The Bloembollenhof community has applied low-density housing typologies to high-density living. As Canada embarks on a search for affordable housing solutions, this out-of-the-box approach can be the first step.

AVI FRIEDMAN IS AN ARCHITECT, PROFESSOR, AUTHOR AND SOCIAL OBSERVER. AVI.FRIEDMAN@MCGILL.CA