View WIER 2 on Flickr

Stichting Altrecht has commissioned VMX Architects to design the accommodation for 24 delinquent, lightly mentally handicapped persons with heavy behavioural disturbances (sglvg+). The project is a part of a series of 5 similar institutions that will be built in separate locations throughout the country in the coming years, under a scheme headed 'De Borg'.

Wier2 is to be built on the wooded grounds of Altrecht in Den Dolder. The project aims to create a quiet accommodation for this target group, with a close relation to the surrounding nature. An existing therapy complex, ’Boerhaave’ has already been built nearby and likewise makes use of the harmonious setting.

The intention is to realize a volume that is as compact as possible, in order to limit impact on the surrounding woodland. In this way, it has been resolved as an extruded 4-storey baton, lying adjacent and parallel to the road. On the two upper floors circulation runs centrally along its length, allowing accommodation to be arranged along the outer walls. On the lower floor, a public route through the building leads to the covered main entrance, and on the first floor, a ramp passes through the volume, providing access for the inhabitants into two secured gardens either side of the building.

The patients’ rooms are situated in four living units on the first and second floor with a view to the forest. The ground floor contains office spaces, the sous-terrain therapy rooms and a gym.

An important requirement from the client was that damage-resistant materials must be used, given the patients’ sometimes aggressive behaviour. The facades of the building will be covered with sprayed concrete, which will provide the durable finish. It will furthermore facilitate the chiselled shape, whilst creating a solid, homogeneous volume which will have the appearance, with time, of a mossy rock lying in the forest.