Mercatorpark

In 2020, we were tasked by the Municipality of Amsterdam to conduct a study on the potential development within the Mercatorpark Area. As such, we departed from the narrative, or scenography, of the street that connects the Dam, the historical center of Amsterdam, with the suburban Nieuw-West. In terms of urban grain, this area facilitates the transition from small to big building scales, coinciding with a less dense program. The departure point for the proposal for the Merkatorpark area was its specific place within the sequence of the city: its potential to be an area facilitating the transition between different urban layers.

The starting point of the brief received from the Municipality of Amsterdam for the project was to deliver 1,150 new homes, with a gross floor area of 105,000 m2; including a variety of housing typologies. Target groups included singles, small households, starters, seniors, students and families. In short, the people that shape a good city. The proportion was of 40% social housing, 40% mid-priced housing and 20% free sector housing. The retention of the LTS building, whilst changing its entrance to face the Jan Evertsenstraat was also included in the plan. Moreover, an all-in-one school was to be included in the area. The district is car-free – the parking is managed underground with access to the parking garages on the main streets.

The plan also included 3,000 m2 of commercial program. In the LTS building, 10.000 m2’s were saved for commercial program and social functions.

The concept of the masterplan was to connect the modernism of the General Expansion Plan (or AUP) with the pre-war residential area designed by Berlage. The connection was to be considered integrally, with considerations on how to bind the two areas from multiple perspectives, including: programmatic, infrastructural, landscape and urban development as well as architectural levels. “Best of both worlds”.

The area would thus become a new link in the unfolding narrative of the Jan van Evertseen Street, an urban “stepping stone” in the transition from the City Center to the New West. The masterplan aimed to cherish and preserve the existing qualities of the location: by keeping the existing trees, the water, and the LTS building and its qualities.

The urban grain is determined by the size and location available for building plots (Reade, Municipial Yard, Playground, partial Lawn of swimming pool Mercatorbad). The available size of building plots determined different housing typologies, whilst the location within the masterplan determined the building height – weather a building was closer to the A10 or the Mercatorplein or Orteliuskade influenced its height. Along the ring road A10 the height according to the AUP is allowed to be 70m. and towards the city, the Mercatorplein, the proposed building heights connect naturally with the heights of the existing building volume of the neighborhood De Baarsjes.

Recessed building lines were determined by private outdoor spaces, entrances and other functions in the buildings, providing a varied yet coherent visual identity within the neighbourhood.

The position of squares in the plan determined the position of commercial and social program, which in turn determined the differentiation at the architectural level.