During the festive award ceremony in De Koepel in Haarlem, Jonas has been awarded by the BNA jury as the Best Building of 2023! The jury stated the semi-public residential building is ‘a prototype for the future’ and ‘beautiful in many ways’. The continued calling the floor plan – with extra deep houses and a narrow intermediate zone, designed as a spectacular canyon – ‘brilliant’.

Kirsten Hannema writes in national newspaper De Volkskrant: “The jury’s choice can be read as a plea to use (more) creativity in solving spatial issues, such as the housing shortage in The Netherlands. By selecting Jonas for this prize, the jury seems to distance herself from the policy of Minister Hugo de Jonge, responsible for Housing and Spatial Planning, who focuses mainly on the rapid construction of flexible homes. “There is a lot of discussion about numbers of homes, and limited attention for the quality of the neighborhoods those homes will form together,” says the jury. In addition, ‘the concern is growing that we are not succeeding sufficiently in working on good spatial planning with a vision for the longer term.’ Jonas shows a clear alternative: building good quality homes and at the same time adding value to the neighborhood.”

We see this recognition for Jonas as the icing on the cake, proving that The Netherlands is ready for a new kind of development where sustainability and collective living in high urban density can come together. When we presented the bold tender design in 2017, we could only dream of an outcome like this!

We would like to thank Amvest for the trust and ABT, Felixx landscape architects, SITE Urban Development, Floor Ziegler, Pubblik & Vos, Ballast Nedam West and all other parties involved for bringing Jonas to life!

Read the BNA Jury report >