1733 Garageboxes
As part of our Schalkwijk Commons research, we looked in detail at the number of freestanding garage boxes in Schalkwijk Haarlem. Once the foundation of a car-oriented neighbourhood design the ubiquitous garage box offers incredible potential for step-by-step human-scale neighbourhood transformation. The garage box is much smaller in scale than other buildings in Schalkwijk but they are all situated at key locations, this is where new opportunities for workspaces, live-work units, artists studios, retail space, courtyard dwellings, self-build plots, could be realised. Their transformation into the above would bring a much-needed variety and diversity of building typology to the somewhat monofunctional residential postwar neighbourhood.
The studio mapped the 1,733 boxes across Schalkwijk, studied their configurations, and developed a set of design proposals for transformation. We propose a step-by-step approach: targeting key locations, developing incentives for owners, and using small-scale renewal to generate a large-scale effect on the quality and diversity of the neighbourhood. Part of the broader Schalkwijk Commons research into the future of post-war housing in the Netherlands.
Location: Schalkwijk, Haarlem
Year: 2022
Client: Gemeente Haarlem
Team: Daryl Mulvihill, Emanuela Schrione
Part of: Schalkwijk Commons design research project.
Type: Urban Analysis, Densification Study
