Oude Dijk Housing / Shift Structure Urbanism

Textual content description supplied by the architects. The primary housing mission for the monastery advanced Oude Dijk in Tilburg, dwelling to the congregation of the Sisters of Charity, has been accomplished. It’s a part of step one within the transformation of the monumental advanced within the metropolis heart of Tilburg, at present nonetheless populated by 120 Sisters. The grasp plan by Shift goals at realizing aged and care properties for the getting old Sisters and safeguarding the monasterial qualities of the location whereas on the similar time opening the introverted advanced in direction of the town, each bodily and when it comes to (new) residents. The primary residence constructing for 36 Sisters connects to the town, the monumental motherhouse and chapel, the monastery backyard, and the adjoining nursing dwelling. Its sober and subtly differentiated structure in brick is knowledgeable by the wealthy historic context with out turning into pastiche or retro.

The city scheme for the location relies on the typology of the courtyard discovered within the historic improvement of the monastery since 1843. New and previous buildings collectively kind a group of latest courts across the monastery backyard, every with its personal character, perform, degree of enclosure, and mixture of inhabitants.

The brand new volumes conform to the scale and top of the prevailing buildings. Their form prioritizes the pure type of the courts and gardens over the first type of the buildings. As a consequence, the buildings are to not be acknowledged as solitary volumes, however relatively as partitions that outline quite a lot of distinctive outdoors areas.

This system of first section of the re-development of the location consists of a nursing dwelling with 24 models for Sisters inside the present monument and a brand new residence constructing with 36 aged properties and 4 communal areas for sisters with restricted care wants.

The brand new residence constructing connects to the town, the motherhouse, the backyard, and the adjoining nursing dwelling. Its linear quantity types a transparent boundary for the backyard and creates two new courts: a closed courtroom and an open courtroom. The closed courtroom serves as a secure outdoors area for Sisters with a psychogeriatric dysfunction within the nursing dwelling. The open courtroom serves as an entrance space for the nursing dwelling and the residence constructing.

Each the communal circulation area and the residences open up generously towards the skin. This allows residents to expertise the skin areas the constructing defines and the historic ensemble it’s a part of. One appears like being a part of the larger entire and the bigger group from inside the constructing. The double-sided and double-high entrance hyperlinks the constructing to each the town and the backyard.  From the single-loaded a part of the hall, one seems again in direction of the prevailing monument and into the enclosed courtyard. The connective nature of the constructing is additional enhanced by the prolongation of this hall on the bottom flooring, linking the residence constructing to the monumental chapel and motherhouse of the congregation.

The sober and subtly differentiated structure in brick is knowledgeable by the wealthy historic context with out turning into pastiche or retro. Every facade reacts in its personal strategy to the skin area it defines and the a part of the monument it pertains to. What all facades have in widespread is the usage of conventional masonry in water-struck bricks with light-grey pointing that enforces the results of the varied masonry bonds.

The vertically oriented metropolis façade pertains to the classical façade of the adjoining monument. The backyard façade has been designed as an inhabited backyard wall that mixes transparency with materiality and solidity. Recessed home windows and loggias make the constructing not declare the backyard, whereas the residences nonetheless open up generously in direction of the inexperienced. The closed courtyard façade adopts the rhythm of the brickwork pilaster of the monument. On the bottom flooring, these pilasters are crammed in with massive recessed home windows, creating the impact of an arcade. On the higher ranges, the home windows are flush with the brick, creating deep window sills within the inside corridors that perform as benches.

The inside hall widens up on the entrance doorways of the residences. The niches it creates break the monotony of the hall and supply all residences with an entrance space. The partitions of the hall are made of ordinary concrete blocks masonry. Their porous texture contrasts with the summary niches in stucco and solves the acoustics of the area.

The demand for a totally mobile-bed-accessible constructing has resulted in an residence typology with out corridors. The usual three-room residence consists of three bays wherein the center bay capabilities as a central living- and eating room from which all the opposite areas are reached.