Grow Your Quarter
Graduation Project
Agathe de Klerk
INTRODUCTION
In our modern city, concrete environment stretches afield, both horizontally and vertically. It generates a monotonous perspective. A form of unnatural habitat in itself.
Collective housing contributes to the creation of this concrete desert. It has a limited amount of space to offer to its inhabitants, and we can often observe a lack of function concerning the green areas that surround them. It is usually a green area with a path and some trees growing there.
This dull environment is contrasting with the cultural diversity of the users of these concrete blocks. Indeed, Collective housing is a place of mutual support and has the potential to make an essential contribution to social inclusion in our demography.
In collective buildings, inhabitants live in limited space. The empty terrain below the building is a potential extra space to share. It is important to offer new perspectives to these spaces, greener, calmer, and prosperous. It is time to rethink the connection between architecture and natural spaces. By giving a function to these forgotten green spaces, inhabitants could reconnect with this natural environment.
In the suburbs of The Hague, two buildings with a deserted garden offer a very gloomy view. Nobody is using this space. It feels like inhabitants ended up resigning themselves to avoid any projection in a place deprived of functions.
The goal of this intervention is to strengthen the community and improve inhabitants' conditions by giving them extra-shared spaces. This will also improve their quality of life and bring vibrant experiences in the garden.
A garden is a multifunctional place.
It is a place of discovery for the youngest and the oldest.
It is a place where family, friends, and neighbours can gather.
It is a place that can be cultivated and explored.
It is a place that generates pleasant memories.
This is what the project « Grow Your Quarter » is aiming for.
THE LOCATION
Moerwijk is a quarter of The Hague. The landscape there is mostly composed of collective housing. It is the poorest quarter of the Netherlands but has a lot of community spirit and a lot of grass fields between the social housing apartments that could be potential gardens.
The area I decided to work in is located in the south of Moerwijk. There I focused on two buildings with an unexploited grass field in the middle where a potential garden for the inhabitants of this structure can be created.
SITE ANALYSIS
DEMOGRAPHY OF MOERWIJK
ACTUAL SITUATION
Why should inhabitants of this collective housing settle for a balcony while a potential common garden lies in front of the buildings.
From a discussion, on the site with the residents, emerged the desire of appropriation of this garden and a real attachment to space. People are ready to get involved in the creation of an extra space which they can use as an extension of their homes.
HOW A PATH ENHANCES INTERACTION BETWEEN COMMUNITIES?
The path should be used as a central artery to connect the buildings and the garden. Fairly large, it should lead people to meet, stop and interact. It should naturally conduct people through common spaces to engage mutual activities.
THE EDIBLE GARDEN
The edible garden composed of a greenhouse, plots of soil, a small water body, and a garden shed. These four components of the edible garden will allow residents to grow plants from various horizons.
It will be a place that will enable them to watch their children playing or picking fruits together in a trusted space, even from behind their windows.
THE SHED
The garden shed, that has the function of storage for garden tools, is equipped with a rainwater recovery system and a place to make compost. This will allow inhabitants to be as self-sufficient as possible and to take care of this place.
Storage
Compost bin
Rainwater recovery system
AXONOMETRY
TOP VIEW
EDIBLE GARDEN'S FLORA
The common garden is composed of various vegetables, herbs and fruit trees. To make an edible garden at the image of inhabitants, I decided to introduce plants from their cultural backgrounds. A greenhouse is at their disposal to allow them to grow plants that do not support the humid climate of the Nederlands.
FLORA LEGENDA
Herbs, vegetables, berries, and fruit trees are arranged along the path. This disposition is allowing inhabitants to have direct access to this edible garden. Walking through this space will give them a unique experience by being directly connected to a flourishing nature.
THE SOCIAL PAVILION
The social pavilion composed by four tables and surrounded by native flora. It is designed to be a place for cultural communication. It is a place where the youngest and the oldest can learn from wild plants benefits but also a place that can adapt to different activities.
It will be a place that allows them to take initiatives like playing music, organize card-tournaments, or just a place to meet and organize quarter meetings.
Tables with different heights
Native Plants
AXONOMETRY
TOP VIEW
SOCIAL PAVILION'S FLORA
To continue with the thematic of a social garden, the social pavilion is a covered space surrounded by plants native from the Netherlands.
Its natural boundary, made of bushes and defensive plants like thistles, is creating an intimate flowery space. It offers more privacy both for the residents living on the ground floor of the building that has a direct view of the garden, but it also emphasizes the emersion of the ones that are using this space.
The plants used around the pavilion have botanical properties that residents can learn about and make use of.
For example, flowers of the black elder bushes can be used as an aroma.
FLORA LEGENDA
THE COOKING AREA
The cooking area is a space that strenghtens the link between inhabitants in several ways. Food always has been a good pretext to gather around a nice meal.
In this collective housing, there is a very diversified population with different cultural backgrounds that can be expressed by recipes.
It is obvious that this space has a direct link with the garden. Thanks to the edible garden inhabitants can make use of the large variety of vegetables that are growing there.
The kitchen is the place where residents can share the way they cook and prepare the food which are very social activities.
In there, inhabitants can gather around a big cooking table, have a sit, or simply have a drink on the high tables.
The kitchen is equiped with different elements that permit them to store the food, but also to create the dishes they feel like sharing with the community of this collective housing.
Water recovery system
Grill
Storage for food
Artisanal juice maker
High Tables
AXONOMETRY
TOP VIEW
DIFFERENT SPACES' OVERVIEW THAT STRENGTHEN SOCIAL LINKS
EDIBLE GARDEN
SOCIAL PAVILION
COOKING AREA
