The Dom van der Laanstraat forms part of an exceptional urban development project:

The district 'De Noorderhof', bounded by Burgemeester Roëllstraat and Slotermeerlaan, was designed according to a completely new concept. The Luxembourg architect Rob Krier was commissioned by Stadsdeel Geuzenveld/Slotermeer and the housing association ‘Het Oosten’ to provide the urban planning design. Krier takes his inspiration from historic European town layouts, which he believes provide a useful example for modern urban development. He strives to create the intimate, attractive and, above all, distinctive. Krier wishes to call a halt to the cold and impersonal housing development of the last few decades. With Krier’s outline plan in hand, the project partners invited five architects to help design the houses of De Noorderhof. The result is surprising. Careful coordination made it possible to construct high-quality town houses at a reasonable price, each of which looks and feels unique. All have subtle differences in decoration and ornamentation, which renders them less anonymous and promotes a stronger bond between residents and their neighbourhood. De Noorderhof really does have the atmosphere of a historic town, centring as it does around a church and a public square. The architects who worked alongside Krier were: ATLANTE (Paris/Brussels), Franz Demblin (Vienna), Joris Deur (Amsterdam), Kees Peterse (Amsterdam) and Mark Tuerlings (Amsterdam).

Although the houses of a particular type all have the same internal plan, they are externally diverse (at both the front and the back). The differences concern not only design details and the choice of building materials and colours, but also the number, size and positioning of the windows and even the height of the façades. Very different then, to the average Dutch modern housing project. Dom H. van der Laanstraat 25 was designed by Rob Krier in collaboration with Joris Deur. The front and back façades are built mainly of red and black bricks, finished with green glazed bricks, in a style strongly influenced by the Amsterdam School.