Het verspreide Paleis | The Diffused Palace
Winning proposal (with New Urban Networks) of the BNSP’s competition 'De Woonwijk als Noviteit' for a new way of living as a service in vacant retail properties in Geleen's city center.
Geleen, NL. 2020-2021. 1st prize.
Vacant retail spaces in the city center of Geleen.
The once vibrant city center of Geleen has become a bit quieter since the disappearance of mining. The streets and squares now feel spacious and desolate because of the increasingly scarce use, as a too large cloak for a destitute old ruler. The palace is empty, the upper floors still house the older members of the royal household, but the young princes and princesses who give to the ball its shine with their cheerful energy, are lacking.
Yet they can be found daily not far from here, in the many employees and students of more than a hundred nationalities at the companies on the Brightlands Chemelot Campus, right next to the center of Geleen. A campus brimming with innovation and collaboration, with ambitious goals in the field of sustainability, new technology and circularly applicable materials in industry and society. The vast majority of employees do not live in Geleen, but further away in Maastricht or Heerlen.
Our idea explores the possibility of offering housing in Geleen as a service, not as property, in which living and working, social contact between employees, but also between new residents and the public space are central. Vacant buildings are furnished and connected as a "home-work hotel" in a wide variety of spaces and activities, whereby the functions of living and working and the connections with other aspects of daily life can be found spread throughout the city center. For example, a shared kitchen on a square can simultaneously have a public function, a living room as a hotel lobby can also be a meeting place for lonely local residents and a space for start-ups can also be a workplace for active Geleners.
LOCATION Geleen, Limburg, NL
CLIENT BNSP, Gemeente Sittard-Geleen.
IN COLLABORATION WITH New Urban Networks
SIZE 163 Ha
FUNCTIONS Existing: vacant retail spaces
New: assisted co-living units for starters and expats, network of collective facilities (kitchen, mobility services, gym).
PHOTOGRAPHY New Urban Networks
