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• The existing shopping centre of Spijkenisse, built in the 1960s and 1970s as a growth community, was outdated and not working well. Regeneration was needed to increase the appeal of the area. Many of the existing buildings were demolished, replaced by an intensive and mixed programme of housing, shops, hospitality venues and offices.
  The plan was designed as a sequence of urban spaces, with the experience of the shopping public and the residents as its starting point. The streets are narrow and the street façades are bent, so that a stroll through the area offers constantly changing perspectives. Visitors can follow a continuous shopping circuit, revolving around an oval, zinc-clad shopping structure called the ‘Diamond’. Elsewhere, the shopping route links up to the existing shopping arcade, situated on the level of the dike and accessible through a new, curved shopping street and bridge. There is a new square in the middle of the town centre. A new façade, which fits in with the new buildings in terms of contour, parcelling, colour and material use, has been fitted to the existing residential and shopping complex from the 1970s that borders the plan area.
  Each parcel has its own building alignment orientation and design, a principle that was first applied consistently in Spijkenisse. The buildings all vary in height and width and feature different cornices. The balconies and bay windows, window frames and brickwork vary in rhythm, form and colour with each building.
  Above the shops are two residential storeys. For various places ‘back-pack flats’ were designed: part of the apartments overhang the first floor of shops like a back-pack. This reduces the distance between the dwellings and the public space, so that residents can maintain contact with life on the street.
  
  [A] Sjoerd Soeters
  [P] 63 houses, shops & parking garage
  [G] 19,000 m2
  [C] PMS Centrum Ontwikkeling Spijkenisse BV

Spijkenisse - City Centre 2002>2007