Juf Nienke: A Sustainable and Innovative Timber Apartment Complex in Amsterdam/ SeARCH + RAU

• Architects: RAU, SeARCH
• Area : 6150 m²
• Year : 2023

‘Juf Nienke’ is a sustainable and innovative housing project located in Amsterdam. It features 61 prefabricated timber apartments, including both single-module apartments and multilevel homes. Half of the apartments are intended for teachers and other essential service workers, such as those in education, healthcare, and police forces, while the other 31 apartments are available for private-sector rentals, ideal for families.

The building is circular, nature-inclusive, and energy-positive, boasting a strong urban presence. The housing modules are stacked high above a grand staircase to create a large vertical void, which serves as the entrance to the building. Residents climb these stairs to reach a raised timber deck with a beautiful view of the quiet communal courtyard. This raised terrace also acts as a communal street, connecting the three housing blocks.

The main 15-meter-high wooden structure rests on a concrete base that includes a parking garage and a commercial plinth. The semi-underground parking garage accommodates 25 cars and 246 bikes, while the double-height transparent plinth offers a cafe, shops, shared workspaces, studios, and tutoring spaces.

The building materials used in ‘Juf Nienke’ are mainly biobased and recycled, with low environmental impact and largely renewable. The prefabricated timber modules (made HSB & partly CLT) can be paired horizontally or stacked vertically to create a variety of housing typologies. By varying the depths of the prefabricated timber modules while keeping a standard width of 4m, the housing is entirely demountable. This means that ‘Juf Nienke’ can be easily adapted in the future.

By building the housing entirely out of timber, the project can store more than 580,000 kg CO2, actively responding to the challenge posed by climate change and contributing to a healthy living environment. Additionally, prefabricating the timber housing helps to lower the amount of waste typically created during construction, minimize the impact on the surroundings, and reduce construction time significantly.

The planting of both the courtyard and the raised communal deck has been carefully chosen to enrich biodiversity. Lining the edge of the raised deck within the central garden are a series of niches for bats and birds, and high above the entrance staircase, the facade is continued to create a bat hotel for the winter months. Permeable surfaces like the green roof and the vegetation within the central courtyard maximize the potential water retention on site. The building is connected to the area’s heating system, and photovoltaics on the roof will produce 140KWp.