The most characterizing feature of Klencke, the residential building designed by NL Architects in the Amsterdam Zuid neighborhood, is its stepped profile. The massive slab, including 50 units of as many as 14 different layouts, is a Janus-faced architecture. Thanks to the setback of its levels, it relates to the multifaceted context where it stands through various, specific strategies.
The north elevation, looking towards the booming Zuidas financial downtown, is a compact front cantilevering over the city. The elevated walkways, providing access to each flat, replicate the direction of the flows along the street on the ground level. A counterpart to this efficient façade, mainly intended as a distribution area, is the south elevation, a space for domestic hedonism.
Amsterdam. A Janus-faced residential architecture by NL Architects
Klencke is a rectilinear building which defines a filter between urbanity and nature, through its distinctive stepped profile.
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- Alessandro Benetti
- 19 October 2018
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- NL Architects
- residential building
- 2017
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © NL Architects
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © NL Architects
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © NL Architects
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © NL Architects
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © NL Architects
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © NL Architects
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2017. Photo © Marcel van der Burg
NL Architects, Klencke, north elevation
NL Architects, Klencke, east elevation
NL Architects, Klencke, west elevation
NL Architects, Klencke, south elevation
NL Architects, Klencke, basement plan
NL Architects, Klencke, ground floor plan
NL Architects, Klencke, first floor plan
NL Architects, Klencke, second floor plan
NL Architects, Klencke, third floor plan
NL Architects, Klencke, fourth floor plan
NL Architects, Klencke, fifth floor plan
NL Architects, Klencke, roof plan
NL Architects, Klencke, cross section
NL Architects, Klencke, cross section
NL Architects, Klencke, cross section
NL Architects, Klencke, long section
NL Architects, Klencke, technical detail
NL Architects, Klencke, technical detail
Large balconies in full sun open up on a wide green corridor, following the paths of an artificial canal through the metropolitan area. Hence, the surface of all the flats (relatively tiny in their standard configurations) is multiplied, and their inhabitants are projected into the cozy environment of a man-made nature. In NL Architects’ words, Klencke acts as “a ‘switch’ between urbanity and greenery”.
According to an increasingly widespread habit, common to most “vertical woods” all over the world, the design and the maintenance of every balcony’s greenery is centralized and outsourced to the care of a landscape designer, a knowledgeable caretaker for this “collective vertical park”, as NL Architects describe it.
- Klencke
- residential building
- Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- NL Architects
- Gerbrand van Oostveen with Bobby de Graaf, Kirsten Hüsig, Katarina Labathova, Laura Riaño Lopez, Gert Jan Machiels, Giulia Pastore, Elsa Snyder, Jose Ramon Vives, Gen Yamamoto
- Jos van de Lindeloof
- IMd
- Huygen
- NL Development
- 2017