Mateo Arquitectura

Borneo Docks from Josep Lluis Mateo on Vimeo.

It is now ten years since the construction of the 26 housing units in the Borneo Dock development (Amsterdam).

Since then, the concept of housing in Borneo has revolutionized existing models.
At the time, it was a new plan for a renovated urban fabric in the city centre.
The site, a former port area, had become rundown after falling into disuse when container shipping traffic was moved to new ports.

It is very interesting to look back and assess the intensive reconstruction of a former no man’s land as a place to live, with dwellings outlined against a maritime backdrop that makes them unique.
The 26 housing units designed by Josep Lluís Mateo provide the setting for the daily lives of families who opted for a different urban lifestyle. This is the tenth anniversary of a landscape of water and everyday life in Borneo Dock.

“The complex should be understood not from the sequence of its elements, but from their interrelationship. In such a beautiful and unique place, surrounded by water on three sides, the project strives to create an impression of openness, distance and lightness. The complex should not appear hard, compact and massive, in the manner of a permanent protective dyke, but seeks, rather to open itself up and- relatively speaking- to melt away” .

Josep Lluís Mateo
26 housing units in Amsterdam
Author: Josep Lluís Mateo | Mateo Arquitectura
Client-Contractor: Bouwbedrijf m j de nijs en zonen bv
Site: Borneo Sporenburge | Borneo Dock, Amsterdam
Project: 1996
Construction: 2000
Building surface: 5.700  m2
Photo: Xavier Ribas