Elevated streets in Dutch social housing building

The De Bever residential building, designed by Breddels Architecten for Segesta Groep, is a new landmark for the landscape of Heerhugowaard, a Dutch town just a few kilometres from Amsterdam. The new housing complex built on seven floors includes 60 social housing units and 18 luxury apartments. Each of the dwellings has a private open space overlooking a newly built artificial lake to the northeast. On the other side, galleries overlooking the nearby town of Alkmar are designed as a series of “street in the sky”, elevated corridors that freely overlook the urban landscape, allowing direct access to the houses.

To illuminate and ennoble these external passages, the architects chose the BLIZ LED wall lamps by Performance iN Lighting, which alternate with doors and windows to mark the rigorous rhythm of the sober and functional brick facades. The main facade features wavy balconies and is illuminated by QUASAR 20 LED wall luminaires, which are available both for indoor and outdoor use and feature a glass diffuser painted inside to create a homogeneous and diffuse light. The stairwells are those spaces that connect the vertical distribution of the building with its pronounced longitudinal layout, maintaining the austere nature of the building designed by Breddels Architecten. They are illuminated by MULTI+ 40 wall and ceiling luminaires manufactured by Performance iN Lighting, whose circular geometry dialogues with the simple quadrangular pattern of the ceramic wall cladding.