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Forming Design Goals & Program Brief

Design Goals

The base building program asks for a live work play building that houses a variety of people with different needs. The base level users are the residents, beyond the residents are other users such as people who work in the buildings, who supply the building with services, who visit the building and the neighboring building user and the general neighbors. These relationships between the different users and the building will be discussed in this section. To be able to properly create a context between the users and building we introduce external goals with which to guide our process.

The building is located in Rotterdam, Rotterdam has a 5 goal policy;

  1. compact,
  2. healthy,
  3. inclusive,
  4. sustainable, and
  5. productive city.

In greater detail that roughly includes:

Close proximity of green and more green spaces that are either visible or available for use, an increase in spaces for personal and organized fitness, an increased use of neighborhood public space for events and gatherings, space for citizen initiatives, lively street facades, accessible public buildings for those with difficulties, more opportunities for aiding those who need assistance in their homes, the creation of more multi-functional buildings, providing space for private repair and reuse, circular buildings, mixing commercial spaces with office spaces, increased creative productivity and industry, increased spaces for starting companies, and affordable work spaces in the city.

There are more parts to the 5 goals but we focused on the above mentioned and while this seems like a tall order, this is possible due to the work-live-play multi functionality concept of the building.

To simplify the core ideas that guided us;

  • A building that caters to the need of those with difficulty and the elderly
  • A building that encourages social interactions both inside and outside
  • Maximizing the comfort of fun and the comfort of work in the same environment.*

Developing the relationship between user and building:

Residents

The first users on our user list are the residents which themselves can be divided into 3 clearly separated user groups; student, starters, and the elderly and those with living impairments. These 3 user groups make up the significant largest majority and most persistent of users and therefore take up the most attention in the program. The starter appartements are clustered in groups of 5, each sharing a co-cooking space. This encourages the closest neighbors to get to know one another from the co-cooking. The students of the building get to live in clusters of 8, sharing a co-kitchen amongst themselves. This provides plenty of space for gatherings of larger groups of friends. The starters get priority for startup office space and have access to the co-working space for those days where they want a change from working from home or in the office. Students will also spend time in the co working space where it is refreshing outside of home and not so far away. The starters housing and student housing has the least priority to the ground floor which give them an additional benefit of look over the neighborhood. Access to the appartements is done via the community center and the lobby where they can see what is happening around the building and persuade them to participate in any ongoing activity. An underground bike parking is available for all residents and a car parking is available mainly for the starters and is accessible via the lobby. The assisted living get location closer to the ground floor where things are closer and help is more accessible. The assisted living is not clustered around co cooking spaces but there is a central co cooking space for all those residents. This co cooking can be a way for the rest of the residents to provide daily help to those in assisted living. The assisted living are in closest proximity to communal garden, the library, community center, and a locket where often necessary equipment and medicine is required. All the residents can partake and enjoy in the spaces such as the cinematheque, the library, the community center, the arcade, and community gardening. In addition the fab labs, the workshops, laundry facilities and the gym are available for their use.

Externals The second list of users are those who work in the building, mainly the startup offices. These would be users who’s connection of the building is only to that of the start up offices, Thus a clear distinction between their access and that of the rest of the users. Then those who supply the building with services; supplying the assisted living with extra aid, helping out in the workshop or fab lab, and supplying post. These are external user who would have a connection to the building that reaches a large majority of the building, especially the communal spaces, increasing the daily relationship between them. Next are the users who are visiting the building accompanied by the first two kinds of users; friends, family, colleagues, clients. The relationship of these users once entered into the building is largely mirroring the fun or work, traveling between the lobby, to the appartements, spending time in the co cooking areas, co working, startup offices, and spending time in the community center and the adjacent functions like arcade, cinematheque and communal garden. And finally the neighbors. These users are mainly interested in what is happening around the building and the connection between the building, the commercial spaces in the building and the street. These are users that will be almost purely visiting the shops, the grocery store, the gym, and the any community activities open to them guided by the rest of the residents in the building.

In the products are 2 figures; The first is a metro diagram that lays out the connection between users and spaces. The second lays out exterior connections we have taken into consideration in the design process.

The full list of spaces is:

Housing: Student housing 1 persons: 80 x 20m2 per space

Assisted living 1persons: 30 x 47 m2 per space

Starter housing 1 persons: 100 x 60 m2 per space

Co cooking: 1 per 5 starters, 1 per 8 students, x 50m2 per space

Co cooking assisted living: 150 m2

Building facilities:

Communal garden: 500 m2

Community center: 400 m2

Co working: 350 m2

Workshop: 200 m2

Arcade: 200 m2

Fab labs: 138 m2

Library: 100 m2

Cinematheque: 50 m2

drug store: 10 m2

Semi-public:

Lobby: 100 m2

Gym: 300 m2

Public:

Shops: 4 x 250m2

Grocery store: 250 m2

Restaurant: 300 m2

Additional spaces:

Bike parking: 210 spaces, 450 m2

Car parking: 105 spaces, 2058 m2

Vegetation: 9182 m2