Multifunctional residential building New West, Amsterdam, 2020

Multifunctional housing project ‘New West’ is awarded with the prestigious Zuiderkerkprijs 2020, the City of Amsterdam’s yearly distinction of its most innovative residential projects.

Selected among 72 housing projects built in Amsterdam in 2020, the criteria of the award address the quality of architecture, of urban surplus value, assembled program, materialization, and sustainability. The jury focused on projects that ‘inspire and contribute to the achievement of spatial and societal challenges Amsterdam is facing’. Against the background of COVID-19 pandemic, a particular interest was given this year to the architectural treatment of routing and vertical circulation within the building in its capacity to contribute to a healthy lifestyle of its inhabitants.

City of Amsterdam, Zuiderkerkprijs 2020 (sculpture by Mazen Alashkar)

‘New West is the winner of the Zuiderkerkprijs 2020 because it is exemplary for the challenges in the metropolitan area of Amsterdam in its upscaling of densification without compromising on quality, uniqueness, and originality. […] New West is a densification project with an unknown degree of high quality and dedication to the neighborhood. With this project, a place for dwelling and living has been made on a plot previously considered to be impossible by many. […] By collaborating with a sociologist, architect and developer obtained insight in the dynamics of the neighborhood […]. In contemporary manner, New West has given form to the task for densification that the city has been facing. An exceptional building has been achieved by making courageous choices in setup, layout, materialization, and detailing that seamlessly interweaves a complex program of rental and ownership apartments as well as social functions. An inspired client and architect duo have responded in a completely original way to the high ambitions of the tender.’

‘The conceptual approach of New West is strong and realized across diverse levels of scale. […] Furthermore, the complex has been made attractive for a diverse group of inhabitants by offering a large number of diverse apartment floorplans, from double orientation apartment (‘doorzonwoning’) to maisonettes and individually organizable apartments with double height. The plinth with a dependence of the Amsterdam Public Library, a kindergarten, and a nonprofit art foundation is a great addition to the neighborhood and will establish a center function close to metro station Postjesweg.’  (Jury report Zuiderkerkprijs 2020)