Floating Gardens Amsterdam apartments building + school, Orange Architects housing, Dutch residential photos

Floating Gardens Amsterdam Apartments

15 July 2025

Design: Orange Architects, with Bureau Rowin Petersma

Location: Heathrowstraat 2-396, Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Floating Gardens, New Mixed-Use Project in Amsterdam Sloterdijk

Photos by Sebastian van Damme, Emile Hoens, Stijn Poelstra, Kees Hummel, Egbert de Boer

Floating Gardens Amsterdam Sloterdijk Housing & School

Orange Architects, in collaboration with Bureau Rowin Petersma (responsible for the school design), has created a mixed-use building. Floating Gardens is a fully integrated structure that includes an ‘all-in-one school’, 192 apartments, and a large communal living room spanning three floors. The building is composed of layers of varying sizes to accommodate three green roof gardens, enhancing biodiversity and improving residents’ well-being.

Sloterdijk Centrum is set to become the heart of the large-scale urban development known as ‘Haven-Stad’. The area around Sloterdijk Station is rapidly transforming from a business district into a mixed-use neighborhood. Since the 1980s, Sloterdijk has been a stony enclave between Westerpark and the Bretten nature reserve. Today, it has the potential to become a fully integrated part of this green network. Sloterdijk offers ample space for new initiatives—its contrasts, green potential, and available space make it a place of unmatched opportunity.

Floating Gardens – Sloterdijk Centrum

Floating Gardens is a distinctive building that gives Sloterdijk Centrum a recognizable face on both Haarlemmerweg and Spieringhorn Park. The inclusion of the ‘all-in-one school’ further reinforces Sloterdijk Centrum as a mixed residential and commercial district. Due to its location by the sports park and within the Bretten zone, special attention was paid to integrating the landscape and incorporating green roofs. As a result, the building was designed in staggered layers, allowing green rooftop gardens at various levels. These roofs contribute to urban biodiversity and improve residents’ quality of life. Additionally, a large canopy at the school entrance serves as a generous lobby into the adjacent sport park.

With Floating Gardens, we are creating a place where pioneers can actively shape the future of their neighborhood. The building houses 85 mid-range rental studios, 76 private sector rental apartments, and 31 owner-occupied homes. It also prioritizes communal living: a place that combines greenery with living, learning, and meeting in a dynamic city. With a school and daycare on the ground floor, there is literal space for Sloterdijk’s youngest residents.

“The various spaces are visually interconnected, encouraging awareness beyond one’s own group, and promoting interaction, cooperation, and shared learning.”
IKC Sloterdijk – the ‘all-in-one school’ – is part of the Floating Gardens project. This exciting and crucial combination of functions for the city is located on the ground floor, marking the first primary school in Sloterdijk. The school’s innovative design features a wide variety of learning spaces, ranging from large areas for interdisciplinary teaching to small, intimate workspaces for individual or small group learning. All of these are arranged around a central core called ‘De Berg’. The school is designed to support the continuous development of children aged 0 to 13 in a natural, seamless way. The daycare and school—comprising 23 groups for around 450 children—are spatially integrated, without a hard separation between the daycare and primary school. It is a nurturing and stimulating environment for play, learning, growth, and discovery.

“The inner garden is designed as a quiet, communal space, where layered galleries, natural light, and soft materials create a silent dialogue between privacy, nature, and community.”

Social Sustainability – Dutch Community

Social sustainability is a key theme in Floating Gardens. The sharing economy is also introduced here. At the heart of the building, adjacent to a green patio, is the communal living room, spanning three floors. It functions as an informal meeting space for residents – where they can read the newspaper, work on laptops, have lunch, drinks, or dinner with neighbors and friends. This space fosters a strong sense of community, expanding residents’ mental living space beyond their own apartments. A guest room is also available in the building, allowing friends or (grand)parents to stay overnight – ideal for those renting a compact studio. The living room connects to a communal rooftop garden on the 5th floor – with views over Spieringhorn Park and Sloterdijk – and a quiet patio on the 2nd floor, offering plenty of outdoor space for resident interaction.

“From compact studios, duplexes, shared friends apartments, to corner units for young families, Floating Gardens offers a diverse housing range.”

In Floating Gardens, social dynamics and civic value are essential factors for a more sustainable future for residents, children, and other users. The building façade also plays a role in enabling sustainable living, learning, and wellbeing. The southern horizontal bands are made of unique white solar panels. Vertical glass panels provide acoustic insulation and wind protection, while wooden cladding and planter boxes create a green living environment and a soft visual appeal. The façade integrates nature-inclusive features, renewable energy generation, and aesthetic quality down to the smallest detail.

Sustainable Building Design

The wooden façade sections, known as the ‘cuts’ in the building, are constructed from rough-sawn Douglas fir planks. The ceilings in these sections also use Douglas wood slats. Wherever wood is visible in the façade, a roof garden is located. The entire patio is therefore clad in wood. This theme continues into the ground floor, where the façade consists of vertical wooden posts resembling ‘tree trunks’ of varying widths. Integrated here are play areas and seating spaces set into the recessed parts of the façade.

Floating Gardens is sustainably designed: all residences are equipped with heat pumps and a significant part of the building’s energy is self-generated. By integrating (white) solar panels into the façade, more rooftop space is made available for greenery. Floating Gardens not only connects with nature; It connects people. With its ‘all-in-one school’, it is a building for the future.

Jonas building IJburg Amsterdam housing, Holland – Housing Information

Location: Heathrowstraat 2-396, Sloterdijk, Amsterdam
Design: 2016 >
Completion: 2024
Surface Area: 22,958 m²
Program: Mixed-use

Architect: Orange Architects (building) in collaboration with Bureau Rowin Petersma (school)
Commission: Direct commission (building), public tender (school)
Clients: Synchroon (building), Municipality of Amsterdam (school)

Design Team: Jeroen Schipper, Patrick Meijers, Paul Kierkels, Elena Staskute, Florentine van der Vaart, Gloria Caiti, Kapilan Chandranesan, Eric Eisma, Casper van Leeuwen, Manuel Magnaguagno, Francesco Mainetti (building), Rowin Petersma, Gilles Trevetin, Susanne Vruwink, Adalberto Pacheco, Julien Kummer (school)
Interior Architects: Orange Architects (living room), Bureau Rowin Petersma (school)
Landscape Architects: Felixx (building, ground level), Municipality of Amsterdam (schoolyard)
Urban Planning: Orange Architects
Consultants: IMd, Merosch, M+P, BK engineers, IGG, Root, SmitsRinsma, Healthy Buildings, Status Quo, CBB, NL Bouwmeesters
Contractors: Bouwbedrijf De Nijs (building), Kwakkenbos B.V. (school)

Photography: Sebastian van Damme, Emile Hoens, Stijn Poelstra, Kees Hummel, Egbert de Boer

Floating Gardens Amsterdam Sloterdijk Housing & School, Holland, images / information received 150725 from Orange Architects

Location: Heathrowstraat 2-396, Sloterdijk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, western Europe