The Hague, Netherlands, for FEAC, Amsterdam

This international competition was for the design of 100 new houses and a new urban square within an existing quarter in the Hague. Half of the houses were to be for families and half for single people or couples.

ARCADE’s prize winning proposal, selected by the residents, was to form a ‘bow-tie’ shaped square which simultaneously expanded outwards and focused inwards. Off this, two local courts were directly related to three storey family housing arranged on side streets.

The houses were designed to relate both into the court and onto the street although they were all entered from the street side. Smaller houses for singles and couples were grouped together in taller blocks of flats which terminated the streets and faced the new square.

Car parking was provided in individual garages at semi-basement level below the family house, and in shared garages beneath the flatted blocks and the square.

Both courts and the new urban square were carefully landscaped.