Hoogveen Voormekaar

With the renewal of Hoogveen, The Hague South West will gain a high-quality home for approximately 1500 people. The challenge is clear and comprehensive: to realize 867 diverse, high-quality, and future-proof homes in an environment that strengthens social cohesion, makes healthy living a matter of course, and adds ecological value to the city.

Commissioned by the District Development Company The Hague South West, we are designing, together with ERA Contour, SVP Architecture and Urban Planning, Felixx Landscape Architects, Studio Stad, and Monice Janson, an integrated plan in which housing, landscape, and community are inextricably linked.

Our team emerged as the winner from an intensive tendering process with our plan “Voormekaar”. During this process, plans were developed and submitted by multiple consortia with the help of dialogue rounds with the WOM, housing corporation Hof Wonen, and the urban planning department of the Municipality of The Hague.

The challenge in developing a residential block of this scale is to strike the right balance between the unity of the whole and the distinctiveness of the individual buildings, entrances and shared facilities. Voormekaar has been designed as a single, cohesive superblock, comprising individual buildings. Not an enclave, but an open, accessible structure that adds functionality and invites use, interaction and exchange, for residents and the surrounding neighbourhood.

Voormekaar draws on the original values of the The Hague South West urban expansion and adds a contemporary layer to them.
Various buildings, each with its own residential programme and character, are arranged around a gently sloping, park-like landscape. Frameworks connect the buildings, ensuring that shared facilities and access to the roof gardens are clearly visible and manageable.

Parking spaces for (shared) cars and bicycles are arranged in staggered layers beneath the green landscape. This creates a car-free landscape offering tranquillity and space for people and nature.

Everyone finds their place in Voormekaar. From studios to collective housing blocks; the Knarrenhoven®, from social housing towers to mid-range rental and owner-occupied properties. Together, they form a carefully considered mix of housing types that suits a diverse city, a neighbourhood with room for difference and connection.

The Rooted Living™ concept, developed by Studio Stad, helps to create places that feel like home. Insights from diverse housing cultures have been translated into design choices that enrich everyday life: a seating area by the entrance, space for cooking together, a windowsill full of herbs, and views of the greenery. Here, a sense of home emerges in the small gestures, at the boundary between indoors and outdoors.

The landscape by Felixx Landscape Architects ties everything together into a single whole. A rolling dune landscape subtly references The Hague’s coastline whilst providing biodiversity, water retention and cooling. Flexible floor plans and modular building systems allow for adaptations over time. In this way, Voormekaar can evolve with changing living requirements and life stages.

Architecture, urban planning, landscape, sustainability and social quality have been developed in tandem. Thanks to this integrated approach, every design choice can serve multiple purposes and reinforce one another.

The spatial layout is clear and legible. Transitions between public, communal and private spaces are intuitive and carefully designed. Buildings overlook courtyards and streets, ensuring that ‘eyes on the street’ provide recognition, safety and social cohesion, both during the day and in the evening.

Sustainability forms the foundation of the design. Together with W/E consultants, a GPR baseline has been established to make ambitions measurable and provide direction. Healthy living is central: fresh air, daylight, comfort and low emissions are not extras, but the basis. The plan is nearly energy-neutral, with scope to progress towards full energy neutrality.

Material choices are also an integral part of the design process. By optimising structures and consciously opting for low-carbon, bio-based and circular solutions wherever possible, the material-related impact has been reduced. In this way, Voormekaar is taking concrete steps towards becoming Paris Proof, without compromising on quality or affordability.

Sharing facilities and spaces is a natural part of the design. Shared facilities, communal spaces and shared mobility enable the efficient use of space and strengthen community life. Sustainability is thus not only evident in the technology, but also tangible in everyday use.
Designing as a whole means, in this context: making choices that work today and remain relevant tomorrow. A neighbourhood that is robust, adaptable and built on trust – between disciplines, partners and future residents.

Voormekaar demonstrates how large-scale housing development can contribute to an inclusive, healthy, and future-proof city. Not through compromises, but through cohesion. By designing housing, nature, and community as a single entity, a neighborhood emerges that grows with its residents and adds meaning to The Hague Southwest.

Here, sustainability takes on a human face: in the comfort of the home, in the coolness of the greenery, and in the natural sharing. Voormekaar is more than a new urban neighborhood. It is a place where people feel at home. With each other, and with their surroundings.