Apartments and student housing

Apartments and student housing
Breda

Near the intersection of Tuinzigtlaan and Ettensebaan, a slab block and a hollow square made up of four separate volumes share a common base. Because the location of the outdoor space and access deck is different on each side and the four sides interlock like the sail arms of a windmill, the quadrangular building is not the traditional perimeter block originally envisaged by the client (which would in fact have been out of place in this semi-rural location on the urban perimeter).
The slab block contains 120 student housing units for 200 students; the quadrangle a total of 246 starter homes and the base a car park and commercial spaces. Between the slab block and the quadrangle is a shared deck.
The facades of the student housing block are of white metal sheeting with French balconies of green glass. Most striking, however, are the closed facade sections in the other building, which are finished with blue glazed bricks, specially made for this project by Koninklijke Tichelaar in Makkum. The bricks were produced in thirteen shades of blue and laid in a gradual progression from intense blue at the base to a delicate grey-blue at the top, so that the building almost dissolves into the sky.