Architecture News Plus (ANP) – Architecture and Design Magazine

De Opgang

This is a project by KCAP Architects&Planners and it is located at Amsterdam, Netherlands. Project's program: Mixed-used program of church, 79 dwellings, child day care facilities and parking garage. There are six images for De Opgang.

: © Paulien Borst

Project details

Project name: De Opgang
Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Program: Mixed-used program of church, 79 dwellings, child day care facilities and parking garage
Area: Total Floor Area: 11,160 m2 • Church: 820 m2 • Dwellings: 9,790 m2 • Daycare: 550 m2
Year: Project start: 2007 • Completion: 2010
Client: NL-development b.v.
Project by: KCAP Architects&Planners

Project images

Designer's statement

Situated at one of the important crossings in the urban extension masterplan (A.U.P) of Van Eesteren for Amsterdam, combines several different functions in one building: 79 dwellings, a church, child day care facilities and a parking garage.

The aim was to create a unity between these different functions while still showing their individual identity.

The church is placed on a platform which gives the impression that it’s hovering above street level. Due to its formal differentiation and slate materialization, the church still appears as an independent and recognisable building in the whole ensemble. The platform on which the church stands is filled with water to create a basin, thus giving feeling that the church is floating. A dramatic route is created via bridges to reach the entrance. The church hall opens to the park and water, the meeting hall to the perpendicular streets: instead of a classic introverted space for prayer we created an open space which is orientated to the public domain. In the interior the attention is guided by oblique walls to the large glass façade which includes a grand cross. The oblique walls provide optimal acoustic conditions and maximum of column free floor space. The green roofed church building is surrounded and topped by a dwelling block, designed as a climbing ring, varying in height and so shaping itself to the context of the surrounding buildings.