It’s a pretty unusual building, all the more because of its function as retirement housing, a building type that in the US is often calculatedly nostalgic in outlook and design. In this case, the architects chose a bold color scheme for the glazing of access halls in the building and also employed innovative structural work to create an exuberant and contemporary effect.
The curved slab edges on each floor level, almost like an egg crate, create a geometric field condition. The visual effect is strong, particularly in perspective from a three-quarters view, where you see the undulating curves converge like flowing script. The balcony railings complement the effect: rather than being simply upright, they have a rake that varies in proportion with the ins and outs of the curved slab edge. The use of colored glazing on the hall sides of the units and the wavy slab edged balconies are interesting, but what sets the project apart is the unique way one of the two interlocking volumes is lofted in the air.
Modernist and brutalist-era concrete high-rises that are elevated off the ground are precedents for De Plussenburgh. However, the ground conditions at many of those projects are more dark, grey, and opaque than their designers intended: their thick and heavy pillars canonized as an aesthetic, but really a product of technical limitations at the time. Modern improvements in the use of high-strength concrete have enabled the very lightweight and innovative support structure of De Plussenburgh. The project succeeds because of its lightness. Raising the mass off the ground by a full three stories permits light, views, and air flow to in spaces that would otherwise be visually blocked, hemmed-in, and cast in the shade. Reflected sunlight from the adjacent pond illuminates the underside of the lofted mass – a key ingredient to enlivening what, in another context, could be a dull space.
In a country with the highest population density in Europe and very little new space for development, not everyone can live in a duplex, let alone a detached house. Additionally, as the general population ages, the demand for retirement and nursing home projects will increase, and an efficient and low-cost solution is required. De Plussenburgh embodies the positives of its precedent building-type, the modernist residential high-rise, while skillfully addressing some of its negatives.
