File:Bbb low-cost housing, tegnestuen vandkunsten (3678135417).jpg

bbb low-cost housing, kvistgård, elsinore, denmark. architects: tegnestuen vandkunsten, 2004-2008.

before closing everything down for the summer, I thought I'd take a break from my palermo photos and show you a few snapshots from the completed first stage of the bbb housing project I have worked on for tegnestuen vandkunsten.

many of you commented on the prototype I uploaded last year, here is a chance to see the finished project. people started moving in about half a year ago if I remember correctly. the photos are from yesterday...

as I have written earlier, it is a courtyard project in which the houses are gathered nine by nine in clusters around a small, communal garden or square. the clusters are all identical but they are placed freely on a sloping site which centres naturally on a little lake.

I can't help feeling that the low-cost tag is not entirely fair. we did the original competition with a high degree of prefabrication in mind but the impact of repeated units is softened considerably by the quality of the site and the scale of the buildings...but most importantly, we never felt we were made to compromise for budget reasons. it remains a central tenet and experience of vandkunsten that key qualities of housing are independent of budget. that may be a provocative statement to all those struggling with budget restraints in social housing, but just think about how often the wrong decisions are forced on a project by thick-headed bureaucrats and ignorant clients rather than a lack of money.

what made me really happy yesterday was the way people are making the place their own. what I saw was only the beginning and as such both careful and hesitant, but it showed an impressive understanding of our intentions. I only fear there are too many restrictions on what residents are allowed to do. we love rules in denmark but the real sustainability of this project does not lie in the sturdiness of its materials but in the fundamental adaptability of its scale and method of construction. I hope changes will be allowed over time.

I also can't wait to see what people will make of their communal squares. they were finished simply with a lawn and a couple of young apple trees but the possibilities for making unique and personal spaces out of them are many and the process of doing so should generate a real sense of community...not that it seems to be lacking. from our client we have heard stories of how people are helping each other moving in - always a challenge, but particularly so in a project where you have to do part of the finishing work yourself.

when you arrive at a place as a stranger, the sense of community often proves itself as a kind of natural surveillance. this place is full of kids (as we had hoped) and people were discreetly keeping an eye on me and my camera as I toured the place, a sign of the individual responsibility they feel. you cannot force that on anyone but you can support it in the design: here, in the way all kitchens open onto the communal garden; in the way the covered access becomes a niche in that space while at the same time framing a view of the private garden and the landscape beyond.

all modest means, describing a modulation of social spaces from public to private.

our own discussion at home right now is whether we should move there ourselves. it would be so much better for our daughter but it would add 40 kilometers to our daily commute - both ways - a problem as old a suburbia itself.