Cascadepark C2C Tower Competition Entry | Almere, The Netherlands | 2008
Villa Kascade
In collaboration with VHP + Royal Haskoning
Team: Jacques Vink, Tim Aarsen, Andrea Abita, Auzie Triratnamurti, Piero Medici

In March 2008, the Municipality of Almere organized a competition to design urban villas and a residential tower in the Cascade Park. It is a testing ground for sustainability according to the C2C Guidelines.

Located in the Almere Poort, the residential tower of Vila Kascade flows a green 'stream' from the top floor down through a series of greenhouse atria. This stream leads to the roof of the parking garage on the ground level. An inextricable vegetation links the tower with the adjacent park on top of the parking garage and grows continuously from the park up to the tower.

Green Lungs
The building breathes through its atria that act as the 'green lungs'. They don’t need to be heated or chilled because the temperature here is milder than outside. It is free of rain and wind. Plants and water in the greenhouses provide a good air quality. The green lungs clean ventilated air into the dwellings. The landscape roof from the parking garage moves up to the vertical green house gardens of the residential tower. Thus, the linked biodiversity of the inside and outside is made.

Diversity in the Residential Program
The 57 dwellings are designed within the maximum building envelope. The floors with the green houses contain three dwellings per floor. The transitional floor contains four floors and the upper layer two dwellings. The outer areas of the dwellings are part of the green lungs of the building. The green houses of each atrium have a theme. The inhabitants of each of the five communities manage together the part associated with their greenhouses.

Water Tower
This tower has a water basin on the top of the building. Rainwater for the plants in the greenhouses and rinsing of toilets is collected here. The water of the showers and sinks has a half life as a 'gray' water. Around the parking deck the area is surrounded by helophyte plants as filter for the 'black' water. Thus, the 'gray' water in the surrounding landscape and surface water can be included in this cleansing too.

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