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The lessons learned in creating innovative and iconic buildings are being used to create affordable housing and stronger communities, says Gideon Maasland, director and an architect at MVRDV, one of the Holland Metropole alliance’s design partners.  

MVRDV is the architect’s studio behind the iconic Valley in Amsterdam’s business district as well as dozens of other award-winning projects around the world. Valley itself, says Gideon, stems from a desire to break away from the generic concept of a tower block with hundreds of identical apartments.

“People want to live in a community, but in blocks of 600 identical apartments, you can’t even point out where you live,” says Gideon. “If we talk to people about how they want to live, you get a sketch with an angled roof, a tree, a fence, a car and a dog. But at the same time, we are densifying cities enormously and we are building blocks that are nothing like the sketch. With Valley we thought, ‘why not make far more green structures with terraces you can actually use?’.”

Valley was expensive, but lessons learned in a project like this can be translated into more affordable buildings. “For example, we learned a lot about how to build complex shapes, which would not have been possible before,” says Gideon. “So social housing also benefits… The market tends to make things affordable by making them smaller. That helps, but it is not always the right approach.”

Communal spaces

At the same time, he says, with apartments getting smaller, architects also need to think about the social and communal spaces where people can meet. “If your apartment is small and you want to celebrate your birthday, perhaps there should be somewhere else in the building you can rent for a party,” he says. “This is much better organised abroad. In Hong Kong, for example, apartments are small but communal areas are celebrated.”

In addition, it is crucial to mix different communities within a complex. “Interestingly, young people often have the same demands as old people,” he says. “Old people are often lonely for example, because their social circle becomes smaller with time. Youngsters too can suffer from a lack of social contact. So it is important to create a mix of people who can learn from each other and help each other.”

Concrete and carbon

Valley was completed two years ago and when it was designed in 2016 it was at the cutting edge of sustainability. “Now you can look at it and say ‘there is an awful lot of concrete’, and yes, it is a concrete structure,” Gideon says. “But perceptions have changed so much over the years. Carbon is a big topic at the moment.”

Gideon believes that a type of concrete will be developed which will solve the carbon issue altogether. At the same time, the demand for more sustainable buildings is pushing architects to look more toward redeveloping what is already there. “As architects we are used to starting with a blank page, an empty plot, and that is not the right approach anymore. The buildings, the things you can keep, add a certain quality to a new design.”

Illustration: MVRDV’s Nachteiland is an energy positive, timber hybrid tower

Last year, Ballast Nedam Development became the first residential developer in the Netherlands to kick off the market for carbon credits derived from developing and building climate positive homes. Now the company has introduced carbon credits for apartments, through its Horizon’s project in Amsterdam.

Natuurhuis, or Nature House, first hit the headlines last year, when Ballast Nedam Development announced its plans to develop climate positive homes which were built of wood and insulated with straw, with a green roof and walls and built-in nests for birds and insects.

The company has since signed a partnership with Climate Cleanup Foundation to attach a monetary value to the CO2 storage in the project. While the Natuurhuis’s biobased materials – timber, hemp and straw – grow, they take in CO2 and store it. By putting a price on that storage, climate-positive building projects can compete with projects that use more polluting materials such as concrete and steel.

“The shockwave this created is a signal carbon credits will become an integral part of real estate development,” says chief executive Onno Dwars.  “Carbon credits will shape how buildings will look, how they behave and what role a real estate developer will play in society.”

The attention the move generated abroad means this way of developing and the knowledge it requires could become “one of the Netherlands’ most important export products,” he says. “By creating new business models the ever-growing need to achieve sustainability ambitions and create affordable homes without subsidised efforts from the government is closer to becoming a reality.”

Currently, people buying a home in the Netherlands can borrow up to €50,000 on top of the value of their property when taking out a mortgage, if their new home has the best possible energy label.

“Now the carbon credits market has become real, we expect new mortgage agreements to incorporate this as well,” Onno says. “And the best practices which have been learned, will also benefit subsidized and social housing. The more we use carbon positive techniques, the cheaper it will get. As soon as supply is up to speed, prices will drop and compete with current building practices.”

Ballast Nedam Development believes that energy-efficient designs, integrated water management systems and green urban development are crucial to offsetting the impact of climate change. Public-private partnerships, strong long-term public policies by the national government and a supporting financial system that prioritizes sustainable and climate-adaptive homes are, Onno says, essential to ensure sustainability and affordability on the road to a climate-neutral, or perhaps climate-positive 2050.

Both the Nature House near Eindhoven and Horizons Amsterdam will come on the market before the end of 2024.

“Carbon credits are real and it is only a matter of time before they impact on the entire industry,” says Onno. “Property developers are excited by the concept and as well as being motivated to achieve a high performing product that does good for the world. Carbon credits in residential housing will rapidly change both companies and lives.”

You can meet Onno and the rest of the Ballast Nedam Development team at the Holland Metropole stand at Expo Real from October 7 to 9. Hall 2, stand 130.

Illustrations:

The Natuurhuis near Eindhoven project is energy positive

Horizons Amsterdam is part of Amsterdam’s Sluisbuurt area development project

The Dutch government has published more details about its plans to get the residential market moving again and is hosting a housing summit with investors, developers, housing corporations, and local authorities later in the year.

The aim is to draw up agreements on stimulating more affordable homes and other housing construction, housing minister Mona Keijzer said at the publication of the government’s plans on September 17. 

“Tackling the housing shortage is an absolutely top priority and it must be possible to realise 100,000 houses next year,” Keijzer said. This will be done “not only by building faster but also by making better use of existing buildings”.

The minister is making €5 billion available for housing construction in the coming years, and to accelerate building procedures. A further €2.5 billion has been allocated to develop infrastructure and public transport links.

The government has also pledged to continue to pressure the European Commission to take a speedy decision about expanding the options for state support in affordable home construction by both housing corporations and the private sector.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has pledged to appoint the EU’s first commissioner for affordable housing as well as set up an investment platform for affordable and sustainable housing. She has also promised to review state aid rules and their impact on the housing sector.

Some of the new homes will be realized through major housing developments and so far 16 NOVEX locations for large-scale development have been identified nationwide. In smaller towns and villages, the development will be in the form of an extra street.  The government also plans to stimulate the building of 290,000 units for the elderly, including clustered and care developments.

The transfer tax for residential property sales, which investors pay over each property they buy, will be cut from 10.4% to 8% in 2026, which officials hope will stimulate more investors to enter the market.

Cutting red tape and reducing the time procedures take is also central to the government’s approach. The rules for repurposing existing buildings and subdividing large homes into smaller units will be simplified under the motto “yes, unless”. It will also be made easier for groups of friends to share a property.

In addition local authorities will be stimulated financially to take a proactive approach to allocating land and housing will have priority over wind turbines in areas where land for building is scarce. Any new regulations on sustainability and energy efficiency will come from Europe, rather than local initiatives, the minister said.

Photo: Mona Keijzer by Martin Beekman for the RVD