Urban Village

In Rotterdam alone, more than a million m2 of office space is vacant, while demand is about 100,000 m2. The total of vacant properties is even much larger. There is also a rapidly rising demand for (temporary) housing for refugees and asylum seekers. In The Netherlands, people now have to stay in tents, sports halls and old prisons (!) for long periods of time.

Urban Village closes the gap between supply and demand and provides a dignified and quickly realizable solution to this problem. In many cases, transforming offices and other buildings into housing is difficult especially if the transformation is temporary; the investments are often too high to be profitable.

Urban Village doesn’t consider vacant properties as empty spaces that need to be made habitable but as “carriers” for small prefabricated housing units. The units function more or less autonomously so adjustments to the property are small and costs are kept low.

The simple and flexible construction of Urban Village makes that it fits into different types of properties and that units can be adapted to any type of residence. In addition, the units are easily disassembled and rebuild elsewhere. Urban Village transforms vacant properties into small societies in the truest and most positive sense of the word.

Urban Village has won the second prize in the contest Voor de wereld van morgen.

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Presentation [PDF]