1 km of balconies

Ymere – an Amsterdam based housing-association contacted Ineke Hans to design balconies in Haarlem for a building by Kühne & Co architects.

In the end they designed 1 km of balconies and gates as a “hedge” in different heights, configurations and situations for Hof van Sevenhuijsen.

The designers wanted to respect the housing complex that was designed clever, but quite plane and were inspired by a nature pattern found among the many floral patterns dated in the wrought iron times. The balconies were made by lasercutting corners from square steel tubes. Afterwards these tubes were simply folded. In this way many different short cut-offs were avoided and the amount of welding has been minimized.

The building Hof van Sevenhuijsen has high rise apartments on one side and low rise houses on the other side of the block. The houses have french balconies and the appartment-block has higher and lower balconies, all with distinct leave patterns. These leaves hang out from the facade but their amount prevents viewing onto the balconies from street level, so they provide privacy for the appartments situated at the busy road. On their side the residents have a straight and spacious balconies. The courtyard and underground parkingspaces are accessible by floral gates. In the yard the balconies are more sober with just a leave on the bars every now and than

Hof van Sevenhuijsen balconies, Haarlem, Amsterdam
Program: balconies
Design: Ineke Hans
Architects: Kühne&Co
Commision: housing-association Ymere
Production: VMG
Completion: 2015