De Vliet - Judicial Youth Institution
The new accommodation of the half-open institution De Vliet has been part of the youth institution Den Hey-Acker in Breda. The design of the new building is based on our study of a new typology for judicial youth institutions (age 12-23) in the Netherlands. The most important outcome of the study was that the quality of the residential area had to be improved severely with regard to dimensions, spatiality and functionality.
The new building stands apart from the rest of the complex, and functions independently. It accommodates four groups of ten to twelve boys or girls each. The living rooms are situated on the ground floor with centralized common functions. The rest of the building functions, such as education and offices, are situated on the second floor and organized around a large patio. Openings in the façades and in the roofs ensure daylight to enter everywhere in the building and offer every room a view of the courtyard.
Each of the four living rooms has a surface of 200 m² and a height of 6 meters instead of the 80 m² and 3 meters height required before. This increase in space makes it possibly to use the room in a flexible way, not only for eating and watching television, but also for playing basketball, table tennis and so on. And instead of a common outdoor courtyard, which one can only make limited use of, every group has its own garden of at least 200 m² which is directly accessible from the living room.
