Richard and Berni on their first year at Levels
Richard and Berni have been living in one of the Levels townhouses since January 2024. And very happily so, as becomes clear during our conversation. The couple, both in their sixties, now live less than a kilometre away from their previous home as the crow flies. They could practically see the new neighbourhood in Leidsche Rijn taking shape from where they lived before. “A lot still feels familiar, but plenty has changed too. We moved from an older neighbourhood to a modern urban development, from one side of the Amsterdam Rijnkanaal to the other.”
Berni and Richard spent 33 years living in a monumental home surrounded by greenery. According to Richard, the contrast with their current home could hardly be bigger. “It was a house from 1922 with lots of character and beautiful architectural details, like steel framed single glazed windows. It was difficult to heat and the maintenance became too much for us. As we got older, we wanted to move from character to comfort. And we found that at Levels.”
Levels immediately appealed to Berni and Richard. “What attracted us most was the sustainable character of the homes and the industrial architecture. We also really liked the shared courtyard garden, designed by a landscape architect. We still enjoy beautiful greenery around us, but without all the maintenance that comes with it.”
A world of difference
According to the couple, that also changes the atmosphere in the neighbourhood. “We came from an older and fairly quiet neighbourhood near a park along the Leidsche Rijn. Now we live in a much more urban environment in Leidsche Rijn Centrum Oost, where homes are closer together and there is less greenery in the streets. It feels more urban and built up. But at the same time, all amenities are nearby, such as shops, restaurants, coffee bars, healthcare facilities and, importantly, the Leidsche Rijn Centrum bus and train station within walking distance.”
The differences are not only noticeable outdoors. According to Berni, the interior comfort is a world apart from their previous home. “We enjoyed living in our monumental house for 33 years, but we now really appreciate the underfloor heating, the floor cooling during summer and the view over the courtyard garden. The indoor climate is incredibly comfortable.”
That pleasant indoor climate is closely linked to the sustainability ambitions of Levels. “That was an important reason for us,” Richard explains. “Geothermal heating, a heat pump, solar panels and excellent insulation throughout. The house is energy neutral and sometimes even generates more energy than we use.”
Freedom to personalise
For Richard and Berni, this was their first newly built home. A unique experience. “We bought the house from a brochure in December 2019. That felt adventurous and exciting because nothing had been built yet. Looking back, the process did take quite a long time. What we really appreciated was the freedom to make many choices ourselves. We designed our own kitchen and bathroom and had flexibility in the layout of the home. There are five identical houses in our street, but every interior is different. It is special to first see everything on paper and only much later in real life.”
According to Berni, it was also nice that Blink, then still operating as Janssen de Jong Projectontwikkeling, invited future residents to a buyers’ event in 2020 during the first pile driving ceremony. “That was where we first met the other residents. We immediately exchanged phone numbers and started discussing things like layouts and design ideas together.”
Walking group
Since then, the connection between residents has only grown stronger. There is now a walking group, neighbourhood gatherings and several residents actively contribute to the community. Berni is part of the garden committee and Richard joined the technical committee. According to Richard, it is valuable and important that residents can solve neighbourhood matters together and close to home.
The story of Levels’ new residents sounds overwhelmingly positive. Is there really nothing that could be improved? After a long silence, there is one point. “We can fit our two bicycles in the storage unit just fine, but families with children and cargo bikes struggle. Those bikes end up parked everywhere.”
Richard adds a few more advantages. “We park our car underneath the house on our own parking space, so parking problems are a thing of the past. In our previous neighbourhood, Oog in Al, the streets were narrow and always packed with cars. Here, the streets feel much more pleasant. We deliberately chose a car free street.”
“The shared courtyard garden gives us all the benefits of greenery, without the maintenance”
