Ithaka auf Flickr

New town Almere is Holland’s fastest growing city. Only about 30 years old, this city aims to double the number of its inhabitants (now: 180.000 people) within the next 30 years. A strong asset of Almere is the encouragement of so called private and co-development by private project developers as well as by future inhabitants. In January 2007 the municipality of Almere initiated a competition for project developers in the new neighbourhood Homeruskwartier. The aim is to involve the future inhabitants into the planning process from an early stage on to increase not only the customization of the houses but also to encourage urban settings that are closer to the users needs. From  the very beginning a diverse group of people from Almere participated in the design.

In November 2007, Edwin Oostmeijer and Van Bekkum (project developers) and VMX Architects won the project, which was rewarded with the plot. In the next two years, the Ithaka project is developed in a strong dialogue with its users.

The result combines urban qualities with a shared landscape. A U-shaped block is enclosing a collective park of 1.1 ha on three sides. On the fourth side a canal forms the natural border of the plot. The view is extended across the water by the Cascadepark, a public green strip running through the new quarter. The housing is rising up gently from two to three, up to four storeys, an incident of five, and back again. Every apartment looks out onto the green space in the centre and has a direct access to it. The house can be extended to the outside.

http://www.mijnithaka.nl/