Groenmarkt Amsterdam
A piece of city where both people ánd birds, bees, bats, butterflies live. At Amsterdam’s Groenmarkt we designed a truly nature-inclusive urban landscape. With architects Bastiaan Jongerius and Ronald Janssen we designed 2 new buildings. Its facades are designed to be simultaneously overgrown and inhabited by animals. Apartment buildings for humans, the birds and the bees.
A new car-free square with wide sidewalks and a lush vegetation invites users to use it without dictating how to do so. Near the Singelgracht a spacious quay steps down towards the water.
The two blocks have significantly different characters. The Marnixstraat-block is a classic, bold yet modest brick building that fits into the protected 19th century city sight naturally. The latter Singelgracht-block is a sparkly, lush green and contemporary structure facing the water: playful, generous and light. It offers space to people, plants and animals. The bricks contain holes allowing birds to nest and climbing plants that grow from in ground at the building’s base find their way all the way up, right through the balconies!
And on the roof: a dune landscape where you can swim in!
No matter what, the wind blows high up in the sky; the noise of the city resembles the rustling of the sea. So here we have brought in the best-fitting landscape: the dunes (just as high and windy). With wind-blown pine trees and lots of indigenous (and sometimes rare!) plants from the dunes.
Groenmarkt is a diverse site where people and other nature lives together. Where the world, the landscape and nature aren’t diminished by developing, but instead where we, by building, multiply landscapes! For young and old folks. For sparrows and busy bees. Real landscape, real city. In the heart of Amsterdam.
