Winners of the Veemarkt competition
On 23 April, the Aorta architecture centre held an evening of talks by the two prize winners. The second prize offered a neat solution for a collective private commission (CPO) of musicians: an inner corner that gets little daylight. Since the group consisted of musicians, and a music practice room naturally needs little light, the practice room was placed in that inner corner.
The CPO also played an important role in the first prize. The 7.2 m wide plot was divided into two 3.6 m strips: one for indoor living, the other a covered indoor garden separated from the living area by a lot of glass. This created a visual connection and made the living area seem larger. Above the indoor garden there was an optional floor, which would then bear on the neighbours’ wall. Without a CPO this would not be possible, and an extra load-bearing wall would have to be built, which would be expensive and take up space. In my view, this legal arrangement is not enough to meet the requirements of the Dutch Bouwbesluit. If an adjoining house were demolished, you would be left with an open glasshouse, so the EPC value of 0.3 would not be achieved; in addition, the slender columns drawn under the glass roof would buckle without load transfer to a wall. If an extra support wall is provided for the glass roof for this reason, it must also be designed for the wind load that can occur in the absence of the neighbours. Unless it is built heavy, this wall needs a portal frame. This design will therefore be considerably more expensive than the price quoted by the winners.