On Friday afternoon the 23rd of November City Council Member Karakus opened the doors to the model dwelling on Slotboomstraat 25. The project forms an example for the merging of dwellings in the neighbourhoods Oud-Charlois and Carnisse. Aim of this project is to enable inhabitants that have outgrown their current dwelling space, to remain within the neighbourhood.
The municipality of Rotterdam is working to realise pleasant housing conditions in which inhabitants of the city can comfortably live and work. In addition to the realisation of new housing complexes, the improvement of the current privately owned housing stock also contributes to this goal. As such, coming years the municipality will i.a. also be stimulating the merging of privately owned dwellings. Veldacademie has developed a Toolbox for people that want to merge their dwellings.
The current housing offer in the old neighbourhoods of Rotterdam primarily consists of small dwellings, of often with a surface area of less than seventy square meters. A lot of people move out of such neighbourhoods in search of larger of better dwellings elsewhere. As stated, the goal of the municipality is to allow inhabitants to realise a larger dwelling within their current/own neighbourhood. The socio-economic climbers among the inhabitants thus remain within the neighbourhood, which benefits the overall development of the neighbourhood. To this end an urban sub-program Merging of Dwellings has been set up.
Stadsontwikkeling (or City Development) has asked Veldacademie to develop a Toolbox that describes, step by step, what the various possibilities for the merging of dwellings. Merging is a good option when housing space, that lies adjacent to a already owned dwelling, is put up for sale. In the Toolbox Merging of Dwellings a number of possible dwelling versions has been worked out. Various options within the scope of merging are elaborated in a simple and clear way, including the cost aspects.
To support this merging of dwellings Oud-Charlois has also been assigned a ‘merging-coach’, Marlies Reinders. With her knowledge of the various municipal laws and procedures she can be hired, free of charge, by inhabitants that want to merge their dwelling.
After the official opening the new ground floor-based single family dwelling could be visited by the large turnout of interested people. In addition, whilst enjoying a delightful bite and drinks, one could also view an exhibition which was set up by students of the Veldacademie. Through the exhibition an explanation was provided as to how the two dwellings were merged into one. The coming years, this exhibition will still be open to the public on the Wednesdays, or through an appointment.
Partners:
- Woonstad Rotterdam
- City Development (or Stadsontwikkeling)
- Municipality of Rotterdam
- BAM