Commissioned by De Alliantie Ontwikkeling, Studio Selva has made a design for 211 temporary apartments and common spaces on the Pasar Malamstraat in Almere.

The total time of realization was twelve months from the first sketch to completion, in order to be able to quickly receive refugees from Ukraine. Because of this exceptionally fast process, we chose to partially repurpose an existing – yet to be realised – design. By doing this, the detailing and layout of the apartments themselves had already been worked out, but the layout and massing of the building blocks had to be adapted to a completely new context.

The starting point of the urban design is a wide central street for bicyclists. Perpendicular to this are green strips, that through small offsets of the blocks are cut into four half-open gardens. Each courtyard has a mature tree, planting, seating and playgrounds. Through their orientation, the taller blocks could be situated closer to the noisy railroad to the north, while the courtyards receives enough sun.

In order to to encourage a sense of community and prevent long corridors, the number of apartments per block is limited to a maximum of 50. Additionally, three shared “living rooms” with laundromats are spread over the area, accessible from the central bicycle square. Along the southern edge are some larger multifunctional spaces, acting as meeting points for the inhabitants as well as neighbours.