Reinier de Jong's TUIN
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 01.24.08
Rotterdam designer Reinier de Jong notes:
"Housing in big city centres seems to consist of small apartments. Highrise equals apartments. Or so it seems. However many cities economically really need well-to-do middle class dwellers. They flee to suburbia as soon as salaries go up and kids arrive."
So he takes the standard suburban typology, the two storey house with a garden, and stacks them on top of each other, "so we will diminish the suburban sprawl that is swallowing up our precious land."
"The project TUIN ('garden') combines highrise with a typical suburban housing typology: a two storey dwelling with garden. A height of seven metres and a depth of one metre of soil guarantees a true garden. Enough for sunlight, rain and wind to enter and nourish trees, shrubs, flowers and grass."
Stacked townhouses have been around for a while, but never with such an extreme cantilever to make those open gardens. Nice. ::Reinier de Jong
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This would solve our problems. My husband could have his yard and we could still be walking distance from the train stations, library, farmers market, etc. If you keep it affordable for the middle-class folks like us, even better. :-)
(PS - DALLAS. COME TO DALLAS)
looks scary to me. . . i'd need to see LOTS of proof that extreme overhang was safe. and then i still might not feel safe. . .
Find me a parent that will let their toddler onto a high rise balcony with no railings
And Emily, I live in the city within walking distance of almost everything in a 1200 square foot, 4 bedroom house with a nice sized yard. And it only cost me $117,000.
I would love to live in a building like that. I'm a gardener and my Boyfriend is an inner city guy, it would be just the thing.
COME TO PHILADELPHIA, remember we have all this derelict space to build on...
What they really should be doing is rotating the garden 90 degrees each housing level. That way more sun could enter the gardens.
-not an architect-
Icelander pretty much sums it up. Looking at those railless balkanies, I suggest. Don't go out at night and never ever, ever let the kids outside.
Overhangs are not scary, people who can't comprehend how overhangs could possibly work are scary.
Rotating the gardens would make for more sun(and rain) on each one, but would be tricky to do without increasing the footprint of the building.
Neat concept, but you're not getting me up in one of those things. Just looking at that makes my stomach hurt. I hate to think what would happen to one of those in an earthquake.
Icelander, it's just a mock-up, the end result would almost certainly have railings. Aside from that though, is a yard bordering a busy street (with no railings) any safer?
Hopefully the building is oriented where the garden spaces face east/west, so that half of the residents don't get stuck with northern exposure (for the Northern Hemisphere) or southern exposure (for the Southern Hemisphere). It's hard to grow plants on the side of the building with no sun, especially vegetables.
Unless it spins like a merry-go-round, someone's garden is going to be in the dark.
I think this is an excellent start for a design. I have a couple of thoughts...
Perhaps the gardens can be split so that instead of one side or the other, they wrap half in front, half on the side? That way, no one is completely in the dark. In addition, if people are scared of no railings, they could raise the sides a little bit. As far as the overhangs go, they've been doing these in architecture for some time now. If it really puts people off, even if the buildings are just 4 floors, it would help slow urban sprawl. Furthermore, I'd like windows all around. Lastly, if some of the floors had communal things like a store, cafe, or a gym in between the living floors that were only open during working hours, I think it would attract people even more. (No one likes living below a noisy neighbor. This would help alleviate that problem.)
I think this is an excellent start for a design. I have a couple of thoughts...
Perhaps the gardens can be split so that instead of one side or the other, they wrap half in front, half on the side? That way, no one is completely in the dark. In addition, if people are scared of no railings, they could raise the sides a little bit. As far as the overhangs go, they've been doing these in architecture for some time now. If it really puts people off, even if the buildings are just 4 floors, it would help slow urban sprawl. Furthermore, I'd like windows all around. Lastly, if some of the floors had communal things like a store, cafe, or a gym in between the living floors that were only open during working hours, I think it would attract people even more. (No one likes living below a noisy neighbor. This would help alleviate that problem.)
liz-
google fallingwater
nuff said
In the seventies the Austrian artist Hundertwasser already designed high rise buildings with gardens. The only difference is that Hunderwassers buildings looked realy interesting!
Why spin the building around, when the sun does it for free? Even if the building is oriented north/south, the north gardens are open on three sides. They'll get plenty of morning and afternoon sun, especially in the summer. I've seen people design perfectly nice gardens in much more compromised spaces than this.
Here is what I mean: http://www.dnp.co.jp/artscape/eng/focus/0606_01.html
Do some people really believe that this was actually meant to be built without railings?? Or that the railings should have been shown in a mock-up like this one? Guys, this is not a definitive design. You can even still make it a Hundertwasser by adding some funny colors and wobbly shapes. But I do believe that is a matter of taste.
Erica, adding communal spaces is a very good idea!
Oh and for the sceptics: please google (images): "wozoco"
This is almost as dumb as the vertical farm.
The structure required to both support these intensive green roofs AND the crazy cantilevers would be so bulky and costly that this project wouldn't get built as designed. Columns at the corners would help (though they wouldn't look quite as dramatic as the crazy cantilevers).
Rotating the units for maximum daylight makes a lot of sense. A precedent might be Renzo Piano's "turning torso" building.
Lastly, a building consisting of only one unit per floor (much less per two floors) would be very spindly indeed. Lots that small aren't zoned for buildings that high. You've got two facades right now with no fenestration. May as well put units on each side. Hell, if you're gonna do that, you may as well just increase the floor plate and make them all flats, with 4 units per storey in a + shape. Each unit still gets two orientations of daylight, and they're all wheelchair-accessible (which won't limit your cocktail party invite-list, or become a bane when you break your leg).
- architecture student -
The structure required to both support these intensive green roofs AND the crazy cantilevers would be so bulky and costly that this project wouldn't get built as designed. Columns at the corners would help (though they wouldn't look quite as dramatic as the crazy cantilevers).
Rotating the units for maximum daylight makes a lot of sense. A precedent might be Renzo Piano's "turning torso" building.
Lastly, a building consisting of only one unit per floor (much less per two floors) would be very spindly indeed. Lots that small aren't zoned for buildings that high. You've got two facades right now with no fenestration. May as well put units on each side. Hell, if you're gonna do that, you may as well just increase the floor plate and make them all flats, with 4 units per storey in a + shape. Each unit still gets two orientations of daylight, and they're all wheelchair-accessible (which won't limit your cocktail party invite-list, or become a bane when you break your leg).
- architecture student -
i have a problem with heights, and the lack of support and railings just heightens my fear of falling and dying on that model.
I think that scale model alone frightens me, what more if its actually a developed one. it has no rails, support to keep anyone from dying over the edge.