MVRDV Wins Housing Competition in Emmen, Switzerland

Posted: Tuesday, July 16, 2013 | discuss

The city of Emmen, Switzerland has announced that Rotterdam architects MVRDV,together with investment corporation
Senn BPM AG, Fontana Landscape architects and West & Partner real estate consulting, are the winners of the
Feldbreite competition for a housing block with 95 homes of 16 different types.
The urban hybrid development combines characteristics of city dwelling central location, privacy, underground
parking with the characteristics of suburban life: gardens, multilevel living and a neighborhood community.
Construction is envisioned to start in 2015.

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Aerial view of Urban Hybrid Emmen: 95 homes in 16 types (Image courtesy of MVRDV)

Project Description from the Architects:

Instead of the housing block asked for by the brief, MVRDV created a mixed urban block with small apartment
buildings at the corners, townhouses along the streets and garden and patio houses inside the block.

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Construction start is envisioned 2015 (Image courtesy of MVRDV)

The 16 different housing types, which vary in size from 30 to 130 m2 and from one to four floors, will naturally attract
a mixed group of inhabitants, an important factor in creating a vivid urban environment. The project consists of 9000
m2 of housing, 2034 m2 services and 2925 m2 underground parking.

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The village-like interior of the block with fruit trees and public and private gardens (Image courtesy of MVRDV)

Each house or apartment will have its own faade colour, emphasizing its individual ownership. A pastel range of
colour was chosen based on the specific colours traditionally found in historic Swiss town centres in the Lucerne area,
such as Beromnster.

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Each house and apartment will have its own facade color, based on regional historical color ranges (Image courtesy of MVRDV)

An important aspect of the project is the high quality of construction in combination with relatively low prices. Clients
will be able to buy a more or less finished house comparable to the basic model of a new car with options leading
up to almost full fit and finish possible. Home owners with little money can therefore delay investment, or do the work
themselves, and still live in a high quality, new build home.

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Storyline (Image courtesy of MVRDV)

The exterior of the block is a varied urban street front whilst the interior offers the quality of a green and intimate
village. The interior of the block is divided into both private and public spaces, with dividing walls used to hang tables
or benches and parts of the walls which can be rotated and used for table tennis.

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General master plan (Image courtesy of MVRDV)

A cohesive landscaping plan foresees a wide variety of fruit trees in the courtyard, in both the private and public areas.
The garden and patio houses in the centre of the courtyard have their own entrance doors at the outer perimeter of the
block. The roofs will be used for additional outdoor space.

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Floor plans with perimeter sketch (Image courtesy of MVRDV)

MVRDV won the developers competition together with development corporation Senn BPM AG, Fontana Landscape
architects and West & Partner real estate consulting.

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Housing catalog (Image courtesy of MVRDV)