Pinching up & topping up

New words are constantly being created in Dutch, usually in response to national events that stir the imagination. Every year, the Institute for the Dutch Language compiles a list of new words. In 2023, for example, they were fake baby, laser racism and board shame. 

New words pop up every now and then in the home, too. As a toddler, our son came up with the verb 'to squeeze'. This was in response to a new kind of ice cream that was for sale at the beach; a Calippo, water ice cream in a cardboard sleeve that has to be squeezed up after opening. Soon all the cousins on vacation with us were asking for squeeze-up ice cream. In my family, this has always remained a household word. 

A lot of new terminology is also emerging within our field. With the housing crisis urgently calling for new (housing) forms and solutions, people are searching diligently for ways to supplement the existing housing stock. This produces a wealth of new words and meanings. In addition to padded, existing buildings can now be bulged, capped or plotted.  

The ABC Architecture Center in Haarlem is currently hosting a modest exhibition on opting, which includes work by our firm. There are several examples on display of how architects are opting up today. In our own design, the expansion of seventies care complex 't Seghe Waert in Zoetermeer, the topping forms a whole with the original design and is therefore hardly distinguishable from it. Architecturally, it is no longer an addition. MVRDV's world-famous blue houses, on the other hand, are a kind of (topping) in the traditional sense of the word, like the icing on the cake. 

Optoppen is a term that actually dates back to the late 1980s, when, particularly in my own residential neighborhood in Rotterdam-West, the characteristic pointed roofs were replaced by white trespa roof superstructures (with studs) to create additional (full-fledged) housing. Because of the enormous scale on which this took place, a substantial solution to the housing shortage of the time. But in many nineteenth-century neighborhoods, the streetscape was totally ruined. 

In my city there is a huge potential roof surface available for topping up. In practice, there are snags because structures are often not designed for this or, according to experts, the facade changes too drastically. A common stumbling block is (how could it be otherwise), parking. Topping up automatically means revising the ground level design because with additional housing the parking standard no longer satisfies. And that is always a major concern.

Optopping is back in full swing, or as my colleagues at Vanschagen Architects put it "back from never before. Although every extra home counts, opting up would be more beneficial if it were an integral part of larger area visions. Renovation (of the homes being topped up), transformation, demolition-new construction and redesign of public space should go hand in hand in planning.   

Marc Bukman is architect-director of Steenhuis Bukman Architects in Delft. The firm specializes in residential construction, ranging from inner-city developments to urban master plans.