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The plot is a narrow piece of land along Grasweg, bordering the river Het IJ, with a view of the city centre of Amsterdam. The direct vicinity is mainly consisting of small industries and office buildings, with a lack of high-quality public space.

Studio Selva was asked to make a study for temporary apartments for students and young renters, with a higher quality in comparison to other temporary projects. Just like the Student Village project, the development was meant to mainly attract pioneers that slowly would transform the area from an industrial district to a housing area. Instead of building directly along the water, we proposed a “perforated block” so that the majority of the inhabitants could enjoy the view from either their apartment or the public courtyard. The lack of urbanity in the surroundings is compensated by the introduction of an accessible waterfront for everybody.

Using a “base unit” that can be extended we proposed a straight-forward and very efficient production of different sizes of apartments, with a repetitive facade system. The use of weathering steel and glass in larges surfaces refers to the industrial past of the site, while the jumping balconies bring more playfulness to the design.