Hortus Inclusus

Pioneering and limitless ambitions are the main focus for Hortus Inclusus, a vision for a nature inclusive mixed use building in Amsterdam. Central are three design principles: Porosity, variation in size and scale and diversity in maintenance and use. Hortus Inclusus is a proposal for a nature inclusive building fit for indoor animals and outdoorsy people.

The team of NEXT architects, Karres & Brands Landscape Architects and ABT bv, advised by Valkwerk, matiaslehner/nextcity. nl, The Healthy City and the Noordereng Group and Mathias Lehner as nature inclusive advisor result in both a nature-inclusive and a neighbourhood-inclusive building that offers a diverse program that provides added value for flora, people and animals in the building, but also for the other residents of the Sluisbuurt and Amsterdam. The building and its nature-inclusive measures are one: it is the building’s intrinsic ability to welcome everyone (human, animal, plant). A diversity of typologies, roof gardens, planting; ‘inclusus’ means an open building, an affordable place that gives back more to the Sluisbuurt than it takes away.