Project: Architect: Client: Date: Budget: Building surface: Status: Location:

Community building for an allotment garden complex Miguel Loos Municipality of Apeldoorn 2005 -2006 € 65.000 excl.  VAT and fees 115 m2 BVO realized Terwoldseweg, Apeldoorn, NL

An existing community of allotment gardens had to make way for a housing scheme in Apeldoorn-Zuidbroek. After its re-establishment in a new location, the community required a new club house plus shed.

Unlike most allotment gardens, this is not a leisure spot decorated with garden gnomes, but a real fruit and vegetable garden. Many immigrant families living in the nearby housing estates grow their own cheap supply of grocery here. Accordingly, there was an extremely limited budget for the design of the clubhouse and shed. That’s why we opted for a simple timber-frame structure, clad in dark Eternit panels.

The panels are covered with an irregular pattern of wooden bars, which serve as a trellis for vines. At the same time, they create an aesthetic connection between the two abstract cubes and the gardens: They echo the criss-cross frameworks of sticks that many gardeners use as climbing help for their bean stalks.