Construction work has started on De Oosterlingen, the MVRDV-designed block of seven residential buildings on Amsterdam’s Oostenburg Island. Designed for real estate developer Being, the buildings in the ‘barcode’ composition form a clear family, but each has its own character, with varying heights, roof shapes, and sustainable façades made of wood, terracotta, brick, rammed earth, or biobased composite.

© Vivid Vision

Located at the entrance to Oostenburg, next to the neighbourhood square, De Oosterlingen will form a green, people-focused street that provides a striking entrance to the neighbourhood. Anchored by the 17-storey “Swallow Tower” at one end, with the rest of the buildings ranging from three to six storeys, the project provides 142 new apartments of various sizes and types, aiming to develop a diverse community of people. With its green roofs, it also aims to welcome a diverse set of residents of another type: bees, butterflies, swallows, sparrows, and bats.

© Vivid Vision

In addition to this biodiversity, the project also aims to serve as a diverse test-bed of low-carbon façade construction techniques using circular economy principles. Most of the seven façades are designed to be demountable and reusable, or they will be made with recycled or reused materials, or both. These techniques include the dry-stacked bricks of The Beekeeper, which uses a mortar-free assembly method that allows the bricks to be used again, and the terracotta of The Swallow Tower, which is reusable thanks to its single-fired, unglazed finish. In the case of The House and The Thatch, the façades are not circular but use low-carbon biobased materials – rammed earth for the former and a composite material incorporating lime and reeds for the latter. In this way, the project hopes to serve as an expo of low-carbon façade options for future projects in Amsterdam.

Read more about the project here.