Reimagining Amsterdamse Poort
Amsterdam, NL
Location: Amsterdamse Poort, Amsterdam, NL
Year: 2017 - ongoing
Site Footprint: 6.510 m2
FSI Netto: 3.6
Gross Floor Area: 23.987 m2
Parking: 17.220 m2
Total: 41.207 m2 (incl. underground parking)
Total Number of Apartments: 243
ranging in sizes from 50m2, 70m2 and 80m2
Program: Residential, Sport, Public
Client: VLPO, Blauwhoed, Dura Vermeer
Investor: NLV Sustainability: Cauberg Huygen
Structural Engineer: IMD Raadgevende Ingenieurs
Installations: Huygen
Landscape: MOSS
Cluster 7 in collaboration with: Paul de Ruiter Architects
HODO is a high-density mixed-use residential project in Amsterdamse Poort, the city’s second urban centre, which attracts nearly 16 million visitors each year. As part of Cluster 7, the project plays a key role in transforming the southeastern edge of Amsterdamse Poort into a lively, inclusive and sustainable district. The masterplan is organised along the main connection between the entertainment area and the shopping centre, integrating housing, retail and parking into one coherent urban composition. Cluster 7 is subdivided into three residential blocks that together form a unified yet differentiated ensemble. This finer urban grain avoids the emergence of a monolithic “superblock” and instead creates a permeable, human-scaled city fabric. A green pedestrian woonerf between blocks 1–2 and block 3 functions as a quiet inner street and social meeting place, supporting everyday interaction and community life.
The architectural concept expresses healthy, sustainable and socially inclusive urban living. Active plinths, an affordable housing mix, accessible roofscapes and nature-inclusive façades form the basis of this vision. To minimise the impact of the building mass on the public realm, the design clearly distinguishes between base and top: a robust and animated plinth grounds the complex in the street, while lighter upper volumes define an elegant and recognisable silhouette. The colour palette reinterprets the tones of Amsterdamse Poort in warmer shades of dark brown, gold and earth green, combined with brickwork, natural stone, wood, steel and aluminium. A lighter metallic top reflects daylight and visually lightens the high-rise. Green roofs and façades integrate ecology into the architecture, providing cooling, biodiversity and outdoor space, positioning HODO as a sustainable urban anchor for the renewed Amsterdamse Poort.
