Uithof

Utrecht

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Gate, square, street, courtyard

In order to build student accommodation at a density of 1,001 rooms per hectare, a high-rise building was inevitable. By creating a maxi-mum diversity of housing types and atmospheres within the project, and paying great attention to the design and the treatment of materi-als, we were able to present the unmistakably large-scale character of the development as attractively as possible.The accommodation was built on the initiative of the University of Utrecht. The Uithof was the obvious location, although the layout of the university quarter did not seem to provide many possibilities for housing or student rooms.Our conceptual model was to preserve the fine, almost Arcadian, landscape as far as possible in its original state. A very dense building model was chosen, so that a large part of the roughly triangular-shaped site could remain open and be developed as a garden. We aimed to create an urban character which would allow the public spaces within the project to serve as the shared heart of the community.The project was set up in two parts: with one high-rise section in the form of a monumental ‘gatehouse’ with the entrance square, and another section with stacked low-rise buildings, known as the ‘village’. This combination of high-rise and low-rise buildings was explicitly designed as a single compositional whole.

PrincipalStichting BO-EX1991/SSH

ContractorWilma Bouw B.V.

ArchitectHugo BoogaardRudy Uytenhaak

Design teamJérôme AdemaJaap Hikke

Function100� rooms for student housing

Square meters36,000 m²

Building total€ 19,000,000

Building commences1995

Building finishesJanuary 1999

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situation

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section cut

first floor

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6

east facade

west facade

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