Cascadepark West, Almere

The starting point for the design of this tower is the flexibility of the floor plans and high quality outdoor spaces. The design of the tower breaks with the tradition of the construction of Dutch housing of load bearing walls and floors made in in situ casted concrete. Instead of the traditional structural design, the outer and the inner facades are structural. This design allows for it to have completely flexible floor plans per floor. To show a large variety of apartment sizes, three different floor levels are designed, four apartments per floor, 3 and 2. The second starting point for the design are (large) balconies. The house market for apartments is dominated by a great number of apartments which lack good balconies. Certainly in Almere, where this tower is designed, a good outdoor space is essential for the commercial success of the project . To avoid the effect of ‘stuck-on’-balcony the architects have chosen full size balcony all around the tower. On the East, South and West side of the tower the balconies approximately 2.75 meters deep. On the north side a balcony of approximately 80 cm deep is foreseen to allow cleaning the windows. The balconies have fully glazed balustrades with silk screen printed golden leaves referring to surrounding park. The tower itself is built of sand-colored concrete and anodized aluminum window frames. The sand-colored concrete works with the gold print on the railings. On the ground floor, next to a spacious entrance hall and lobby (with a 60 meters high atrium), the inhabitants can make use of a swimming pool, sauna and fitness room. The tower is linked to an underground parking containing 57 parking/storage units, 30 extra parking spaces and a bicycle storage. The roof of the garage is a water garden with voids to the garage to allow daylight into the underground parking.