The living room offers a space where people can come together without pressure from commerce. Residents are given the opportunity to meet each other and welcome visitors in their own living room. In this way, hospitality is introduced in the Schiedamse Vesthof and the city center becomes a little less for the cars and a little more for the people.
The intervention consists of transforming the single extension floor into a living room for the block’s…
The living room offers a space where people can come together without pressure from commerce. Residents are given the opportunity to meet each other and welcome visitors in their own living room. In this way, hospitality is introduced in the Schiedamse Vesthof and the city center becomes a little less for the cars and a little more for the people.
The intervention consists of transforming the single extension floor into a living room
for the block’s residents. Five bays of the extended storage space are repurposed into
a space for the residents and casual passengers that functions as a semi-public living
room. The space is for residents to go to when they want to leave their dorm rooms to
go read a book, study, meet other residents or just relax. The living room is semi-public,
which means that anyone is welcome in the space, under the social norms of the residents. Thus, the guest is allowed to enter the host’s space, but on conditions set by the
host. Welcoming is conditional, in the sense that the stranger adapts to the order of the
house. When the host says ‘make yourself at home’ it is a self-limiting invitation. It means,
‘feel at home but remember, this is not your house but mine’.
To enter the living room you have to climb four steps through the existing façade, the
façade is still there as a gate to indicate the boundary between public and semi-public space. Through this transition, visitors become aware that they are entering another domain. Between the living room and the facade there is a covered open space that
serves as a passage to two patios on either side of the living room. One patio belongs to
the lounge part of the living room and serves as an open air seating area, the other patio
is a garden for the living room where plants grow and there is space for residents to grow
vegetables fruits and herbs.
The outdoor space directly in front of the town hall room will be rearranged into a plaza.
On this square visitors can take a temporary rest and sit on benches. Because the square
is raised 400 mm, a visual connection with the living room is created. Existing paving is
replaced by grass blocks that allow rainwater to be absorbed by the ground and reduce
heat in the court. A path of bricks, in the red color that matches the color of the steel
structure, leads visitors through the courtyard and clearly indicates the intended entrances to the living room. Where cars were previously parked directly in front of the façade,
areas are now designed for trees and plants to grow.
The design exudes an industrial atmosphere, a red steel structure carries the roof and
part of the existing concrete walls and the ceiling is four meters high with three rooflights.
The layout in the living room is divided among three sections, one section for studying
and reading, one section for group collaboration and one section where lounging can
take place. The new space is enclosed by a wall of reused masonry, with windows and
doors reused from the old facade.
