The design of the proposal by OODA + OOIIO was instinctively developed under basic and determinant assumptions reflected from the local. Water, rurality, urbanity and cultural habits and traditions. They have tried to form an interactive balance among all the premises and found in nature a conceptual framework that served as a starting point for the formalization of their urban housing plan. The floating water lilies. More images and architects’ description after the break.
This living in water organisms are in their essence specimens that naturally make a “bridge” between water and land world, developing a particular and sustainable ecosystem. Simultaneously the floating water lilies are also a recognizable icon of the Friesland province identity. Our proposal design was based in this concept, trying to develop a new parallel urban system. The need to combine and establish environmental relationships within the study area and the city of Leeuwarden, led us to a cellular organization, created from the abstraction of a water lilies set.
Through the juxtaposition , overlap and repetition of the floating cells we were able to organize and develop a unique residential and common environment with high integration of water, green spaces and agricultural areas. In this way it was possible to bring together all the new residential habits and the natural /rural pre-existences, creating a sustainable residential system in harmonious coexistence with the urban and natural environments.
All the urban plan was created in a cellular matrix brought by the water lilies abstraction where all the ground floor access housing units, together with all the sports, agricultural and public spaces set in water, like floating water lily pad. In this sense all the apartment housing blocks are the exceptional forms with a more vertical assumption, and that are also related with the concept representing the abstraction of the Water lily flower.
Architects: OODA + OOIIO Location: Leeuwarden, Netherlands Team: OODA: Diogo Brito, Rodrigo Vilas-Boas, Francisco Lencastre, Francisca Santos, Diogo Mesquita, Lourenço Menezes; OOIIO: Joaquín Millán Villamuelas, Jesús Reyes García, Joanna Siejak, Ana Sánchez Torrecilla, Emiliano d´Incecco, Ana Mendicuti, Juan José Ortega López
