City Kids will be a home for troubled youth in Amsterdam’s ‘Overtoomseveld’ district.

The Overtoomseveld is designed by van Eesteren and belongs to the AUP of 1920. The existing buildings are compositions of blocks and the problem of the public spaces is that they have no identities.

urban maquette Overtoomseveld

The idea is that the residents can prevent the neglect of the public space. The design assumption was that the new buildings are defined by cutouts, immediately giving the public space its own identity.

maquette Citykids

The youth are invited to appropriate the public space, planting fruits and vegetables in the courtyard, on the roof gardens, and in the two greenhouses on top of the buildings. The fruit and vegetables are for sale in the shop and of course, to use, which also creates an active connection with the surrounding neighborhood.

floorplan +0
floorplan +1
floorplan +2

The vision for the City Kids is about security and freedom. This is visible in the wall, which enclose the building. This architecture refers to monastic architecture and, like a monastery, there is an obvious separation between inside and outside. On one side the wall is a safe enclosure and on the other hand, this wall with its many cutting outs clearly shows that a  healthy ‘rehabilitation’ brings a lot of freedom.

visualization courtyard
visualization shops