GROWING PROSPERITY, changing family structures and increased mobility in the post–war Netherlands have led to a veritable explosion in house building. Following the strongly regulatory role of government and the influence that economics has been able to exert via the commercial developers on the house–building process it is now the turn of the occupants who increasingly have the opportunity to obtain a plot of land to build on themselves. By deciding what to build, these homes’ future occupants frequently choose from the catalogues published by building contractors. Why is this catalogue house so popular? The explanation is simple: it is the bespoke, tailor-made option in a market dominated by off-the-peg housing. Builders pounce on this desire for affordable individuality.
The aim of this project has been to investigate the catalogue homes market and its potential for Gouda – with the typical characteristics of Gouda’s landscape in mind. The assignment was to devise a strategy that would enable the creation of catalogue homes that would be typical of Gouda. Ultimately, bringing these homes onto the market may enable Gouda’s characteristics to be reflected over a much wider region.
An Amphibious Home for Gouda Besides the growth in communication, the globalization of the past decades has profoundly affected the architecture of urban areas. Many different cities are filled with the same kinds of buildings, so that urban areas have become interchangeable. This has led to an increasingly vociferous call to stimulate cities’ own sense of identity by building in their own styles. What do we mean exactly by an own style? Frequently, this means the architectural structures that are unique to the region and influenced by particular traditions. Viewing Gouda in this light it seems clear that while history may have left several prominent structures, buildings here do not differ appreciably from that of any other town in the province of Holland. There is no such thing as a typical Gouda style.
Even more than construction type, which results from conditions in a certain area at a certain moment, we need to indicate the set of conditions within which a type develops as typical of that region. In Gouda’s case this consists of its windmills and sluices as well as its polders, dykes and dyke houses. How they look is less important here than the fact that they testify to the struggle against the marshland that typifies the Gouda area.
Technically, Gouda is actually a thoroughly undesirable place to build. To make the boggy ground suitable for development piles have to be driven to a minimum of fifteen metres depth after having applied an appreciable quantity of sand slurry to the surface. While the piles tie up a large amount of capital underground, the sand destroys all the characteristics of the landscape. And it’s the natural beauty of the Green Heart that formed a major reason for wanting to live in Gouda in the first place.
The housing construction market is steered partly by housing contingents, allocated periodically by central government. These stipulate how many houses a local authority is allowed to build. Gouda’s allocation is currently insufficient for it to absorb its own population growth. The regulations, however, apply only to housing with foundations and not to moveable or mobile homes.
The conditions that could be conducive to the creation of a typical Gouda housing development are summarised as follows: 1) the possibility of adaptation to Gouda’s boggy terrain, 2) the obligation for the development to preserve as many features of the landscape as possible, 3) the construction of a residential environment for the commercial market and 4) the ability where required to fulfil housing demand outside the national contingent regulations.
The amphibious home fulfils all these requirements. Built on a concrete tub, the home can be moored either on water or on land or marsh. It floats and adapts optimally to ground conditions; it is mobile and when set up does not spoil the landscape’s natural features, which it uses, also optimally. As a freestanding home and a type of housing that is also in line with market requirements, the amphibious home is easy to produce as a catalogue home as well as to transport. Indeed, a houseboat ambience is even market–optimal, given amenities and facilities such as parking boats (including covered) floating filling stations, shop boats and floating schools. Finally, since these homes are without foundations, they do not use up scarce housing construction allocations.
A competition linked with this project is being held for housing designs that combine all these qualities.