Homes and shops in the Nieuwe Foeliestraat in Amsterdam

 

In the 1960s, the urban structure of 17th-century Rapenburg was torn apart by the demolition for a traffic breakthrough. New insight into the space requirement for the traffic allowes for the restoration one of the old building blocks. This building turns this block into a closed city block again, with a new facade on Nieuwe Foeliestraat. The building is located on the transition between the large size of the Nieuwe Foeliestraat and the ancient (side) streets Rapenburg and Foeliedwarsstraat. The character of the broad city street requires a strong shape - one solid building, a kind of city palace. The strong shape of the building is adapted, when meeting with the buildings of the side streets, by lowering the building height at that point. The glassy corners of the building refer to a common 19th corner solution in the city center, in which an entrance on the corner is combined with a special feature, often a bay window. Outdoor spaces in the facade are designed as conservatories and protrude slightly. They give the building extra plasticity.

 

The smaller residential building on Nieuwe Foeliestraat has a formal language that connects it to the larger neighbor, the difference being made by the different proportions of the windows and masonry piers, and a different choice of brick.