“Garden and the city”:
the recovery and conversion of urban voids into gardens

Typology
Urban redevelopment

Place
Amsterdam-Paesi Bassi

Year
2023

Team
Corsaro Architetti, Jofre Roca Taller d’Arquitectura, Noelle Teh – Common Ground Landscapes

The opportunity to create a large green space, an oasis for the city by recovering one of the typical urban voids, abandoned or unused areas, consisting of the inner courtyards from the buildings that form the blocks and thus the modules of the urban matrix of cities. An intervention that seeks to break the limits of the built blocks with a plot of green areas, to return part of the lost nature to the city. The integration of greenery with spaces to be used for services complementary to residences can, through a large-scale strategy, help reduce mobility, air pollution (also by absorbing CO2), mitigate the microclimate by reducing the “heat island” effect, improve the local ecosystem and the well-being of residents. The easily replicable intervention at the macroscale aims to create future synergies between citizens and nature, transforming and improving the pattern of city living. The redevelopment project was based in the enhancement of the main residential building, expanding the commercial spaces on the ground floor and restoring a new facade to it. The new office volume, totally open and transparent, with a roof-garden, blends into the landscape of the inner courtyard.

Current state

Project

Residential building and commercial spaces

Roof garden – project

New facade and redevelopment of spaces inside the courtyard – project

Office building – project