JVST Wraps a Raised Public Garden in Brick and Green Block for 118 Social Homes in The Hague

Steenzicht 1A is one of the first buildings completed under De Zichten, the renewal and densification plan for the post-war neighbourhoods of Dreven, Gaarden and Zichten in southwest Den Haag. Designed by JVST for Heijmans and the housing corporation Staedion, it places 118 social-rent dwellings in 8,500 m² of floor area on a 4,118 m² site. The building is two L-shaped volumes set around a shared garden. It answers a familiar Dutch question: how do you add density to a neighbourhood of free-standing slabs without simply adding more slabs?

JVST's answer is the courtyard block, a type the post-war planners deliberately set aside. The interesting part is that the courtyard is not sealed off. It sits on the roof of a parking garage, raised above the street, and stairs lead up into it from the public realm. Those stairs make it a semi-public room that is neither a gated communal garden nor an anonymous lawn. The block also has two faces. Toward the street it uses the neighbourhood's brick language; inside, it shifts to green concrete block and white steel. We think that doubling is the project's real argument, and it is worth examining closely.

A Brick Front That Belongs to the Street

The street elevations use yellow brick over an orange-red brick plinth. This is a deliberate echo of the brick already present in the surrounding neighbourhood. At five storeys the block holds its line without pushing for attention. The large existing tree in front of it does much of the work of softening the edge.

The detailing is where the facade earns its keep. Tall vertical masonry frames mark the entrances, and a concrete canopy with lettering identifies the front door. Projecting header bricks give the wall a fine relief that catches dappled light. Maisonettes line the street side, so the ground floor reads as a sequence of homes and front doors rather than a blank base. That is how a perimeter block produces street life instead of just claiming it.

Stairs as Public Infrastructure

The most generous gesture here is circulation. Wide exposed-concrete stairs climb from street level to the raised garden. White steel walkway bridges pass overhead and connect the gallery-access apartments. The stair is sized for a parent and child walking side by side, not for code minimums. That width tells you the courtyard is meant to be used by people who do not live there.

Open-tread diagonal stairs and white balustrades lay out movement across the green block facades. The galleries become a public-facing layer of the building rather than a service corridor tucked behind it. Shadows from the bridges stripe the walls through the day, and the access system ends up as the courtyard's main ornament.

A Different Material World Inside the Block

Step through and the palette changes. The courtyard facades use green concrete block paired with white gallery balustrades and exposed concrete balconies. The colour is the right call: it reads as a backdrop for planting rather than competing with it, and it signals that this is a different kind of space from the street.

The two volumes are not identical. One is orthogonal and follows the rhythm of the surrounding slab buildings. The other steps in section and has a corner accent, and its terraces face the garden. According to the architects, the massing is tuned to bring sunlight into both the dwellings and the courtyard. In a block this deep, that determines whether the garden thrives or sits in permanent shade.

A Garden Built on a Garage Roof

Below the lawn are 64 car parking spaces. Above it is a nature-inclusive, climate-adaptive garden designed with landscape architects Buro Sant en Co. Rainwater from the roofs and galleries is harvested to irrigate the planting. Corten planter beds, birch trees and a staggered stepping-stone path give the deck enough variety to feel like ground rather than a roof slab.

Putting parking under the courtyard is a familiar move in Dutch housing. Here, though, it also lifts the garden enough to separate it from the street without walling it off. That height difference, crossed by public stairs, carries the project's semi-public intent.

Shared Space for Social Rent

Picnic tables, play areas and garden plots turn the courtyard into somewhere to spend time, not just a view. For social-rent tenants in two- and three-room apartments, the garden effectively adds to the floor area of every home. The galleries overlook it, so neighbours pass each other daily, and the space is watched over informally.

The question is how this semi-public status holds up over time. Open stairs can invite friction as easily as connection. Its long-term success will depend on Staedion's management as much as on JVST's design. As built, the provision is sound and the intent is clear.

Plans and Drawings

The drawings show the project's stacked logic clearly. A central parking hall at ground level is ringed by dwellings. Above it, the courtyard level opens into a planted landscape framed by the two apartment wings. The upper floors repeat compact unit layouts around the void. The section explains the whole scheme: terraces step back from the garden, and parking sits beneath the raised courtyard.

Why This Project Matters

Post-war renewal across the Netherlands keeps returning to the problem of open, anonymous green space that belongs to everyone and therefore to no one. Steenzicht 1A, set within the urban framework by Palmbout Urban Landscapes, shows that bringing back the perimeter block does not have to mean privatising the ground. A raised courtyard, reached by generous public stairs, can be defined and open at the same time.

It also shows that social housing can carry two clear identities without contradiction. The block is contextual brick on the street and a greener, more experimental world within. For a district that will see many more buildings under De Zichten, this is a strong opening benchmark: dense, modest in budget and specific in its moves.

Steenzicht 1A Social Housing by JVST, Den Haag, The Netherlands. Area: 8,500 m². Completed 2026. Photography by Aiste Rakauskaite.

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