6 Courtyard houses
Hague courtyard newspaper, September 2009
A new courtyard is being built in the Goudenregenstraat. It consists of 6 cube-like dwellings accessible by a covered gate. The courtyard is adjacent to the in 2005 inaugurated apartments of the Goudenregenhof.
Architect Jan van Huizen of Roeleveld-Sikkes Architects made a small but beautiful piece of art by succeeding in giving the small houses, with an area of 55 square meters, a private entrance and plenty of daylight. “a row of houses with a pitched roof would be traditional, but that would not provide enough daylight. The top floor is therefore shorter, to guide the daylight of the bedroom window over the stairwell into the living room." This window, from floor to ceiling, is not placed on the neighbour’s garden side, but on the terrace above the entrance, thus guaranteeing privacy.
Huib van Eesteren, Director of The Royal Housing Association of The Hague 1854 which committed the first social housing in The Hague with the court Schuddegeest, is delighted. In his eyes, the Goudenregenhofje actually is a modern kind of Schuddegeest, equally with a flat roof but contemporary developed. An additional note is the elegant facade of a traditional Dudok-like stone, cemented in a traditional masonry link and with a curbstone on top. The light holes in the facade refer to the grandeur of a courtyard house. The kitchen window, which goes around the corner does not only increase the line of sight but also gives the tenant a maximum "sense of freedom”.
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