The Casbah by Piet Blom revised
November 19, 1998

The Casbah in Hengelo by Piet Blom is one of the few housing projects from the 1970's in which the discussed themes; condensation and function mixing, are still current. But as a concrete project the Casbah failed for an important part. The most important cause for this failure is the fact that the 'municipal roof' wasn't realised in an inner-city environment, but at the edge of a dull expansion estate. The project is apparently still sufficiently valued. The current owner, Housing management St. Joseph and the Municipality Hengelo, will make three million guilders available to secure the future of this 'modern monument'.

The Casbah is a 1973 complex of 184 homes. Characteristic is the fact that the homes are in a closed linked configuration on the 'first story', that way forming a roof above a common covered area that could be captured by the inhabitants. Blom expected an active municipal environment in this area. Perhaps this could also have been successful if the project would have been built in the inner city of Hengelo, as it was originally intended. On the edge of the city however this potential could not be upheld: the arrangement is obsolete, obscure and can easily be vandalised and the few shops that were there in the beginning have left.
Since the homes have been renovated in the past years, Piet Blom has agreed to a new generation of designers to work on his brainchild. A design team consisting of Bjarne Mastenbroek, Dick van Gameren (The Architect group), landscape architect Michael van Gessel and Marieke Timmermans (Bureau B+B) has received the contract to develop proposals for a revitalisation of the area. The team, that is co-ordinated by Marc A. Visser (S@M), will present these proposals at the end of this year. The key for renewal is especially sought in delivering more light and space, differentiation and re-landscaping in the foundation.

This re-landscaping of the municipal roof is undoubtedly the best strategy considering its suburban location. But the real interesting potentials of the project: condensation, function mixing and offering an informal municipal area that can be captured by the inhabitants never had a real chance and will now definitely be abandoned. When the municipality will spend a few millions to research whether the Casbah model can be fitted in an inner-city context -and there are plenty young designers that would want to do that - only then this modern monument will be really revitalised.

Piet Vollaard