Mark Magazine 2016-02-03

Another Architecture N°60 February — March 2016 

How Odile Decq realized a 

museum in China over Spe 

New Dutch train stations 

turn tradition upside down 

What if your architecture 

competition yields 1,700 entries? 

Reinier de Graaf: ‘I no longer 

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Mark 60 

Feb — Mar 2016 

005 

Plan 

034 

012 Notice Board 

022 Cross Section 

024 Diener & Diener — Martin Steinmann Aarau 

026 Mecanoo Haarlemmermeer 

028 AP Atelier Ostrava 

030 MVRDV Amsterdam 

032 ARX Abrantes 

034 Atelier Tekuto Too 

036 Schmidt Hammer Lassen The Hague 

038 Degelo Freiburg 

040 SUB Jakarta 

042 Infographic 

044 MX_SI Granada 

046 WMR Matanzas 

048 Shift Kerkrade 

050 Brenac & Gonzalez Saint-Ouen 

052 Meili Peter Hannover 

054 Lumo South Funen Archipelago 

074 

Atelier Tekuto 

House in Too 

Photo Atelier Tekuto 

056 Pers ective 

New Train Stations in The Netherlands 

058 Introduction 

062 Benthem Crouwel, Meyer & Van Schooten 

Architecten and West 8 have given 

Rotterdam an iconic ci gate. 

074 UNStudio’s station in Arnhem is all about 

the spectacular ‘twist’ that ties together 

the pedestrian flows. 

086 Koen van Velsen’s station in Breda 

wants to be part of the ci. 

098 JanBenthemworked on four of the 

six major new stations in the Netherlands. 

UNStudio 

Station in Arnhem 

Photo Hufton+Crow

006 

Mark 60 Feb — Mar 2016 

104 Lon Section 

106 GilBartoloméusedlocal 

craftsmanship to connect a villa 

to both the mountains and the sea. 

116 KWK Promes takes the weekend 

housetoanupperlevel. 

124 The New Hollandic Water 

Line is an ingenious, eighteenthcentury 

defence system that has 

had new life breathed into it by the 

Waterliniemuseum Fort bij Vechten. 

142 Malcolm Reading organizes 

architecture competitions. ‘We’re 

looking for a building that will be 

forever linked with the moment 

a career was made.’ 

146 Peter Haimerl renovated and 

remodelled a small farm close to 

Munich. 

154 Alex McDowell talks about his 

practice of world building and his 

first steps into architecture and 

urban planning in the real world. 

160 Odile Decq managed to realize 

a museum in Nanjing over Spe. 

168 TNA’s latest house in Too is 

closely linked to the street. 

176 Reinier de Graaf talks about the 

role of reading and writing within 

the architect’s office. 

154 

Alex McDowell 

Photo 5D Global Studio 

116 

180 Tools 

192 Exit 

KWK Promes 

House in Brenna 

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008 

Mark 60 Feb — Mar 2016 

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012 Mark 60 

Notice 

Board

Notice Board 

013 

‘The intimac 

found in a 

low-rise 

office 

buildin 

is stacked 

Kim Herforth Nielsen on 

3XN’s Quay Quarter Tower 

in Sydney, page 015 

into a 

hi h rise’

014 Mark 60 Notice Board 

1 

3 

2

015 

1 MountainHutOberholz 

Obere≫en–Italy 

Peter Pichler and Pavol Mikolajcak 

— A restaurant on a ski slope at 

an altitude of 2,000 m 

Competition entry, 1 st prize, 

expected completion 2016 

peterpichler.eu 

2 ZalandoHeadquarters 

Berlin–Germany 

Henn 

— Two seven-storey buildings 

that provide some 42,000 m² of 

office space for 2,700 employees 


expected completion 2017 

henn.com 

3 CiHall 

Sandnes–Norway 

KAMJZ 

— Assembly hall, offices and 

citizen services for the ci of 

Sandnes 

Competition entry 

kamjz.com 

4 PolishHouse 

Gródek nad Dunajcem–Poland 

BXBstudio Bogusław Barnaś 

— A modern interpretation of the 

traditional Polish house 

Design proposal 

bxbstudio.com 

5 QuayQuarterTower 

Sydney–Australia 

3XN Architects 

— A 200-m-high office tower, 

divided into five separate volumes 

with an atrium at the base of each 


expected completion undisclosed 

.3xn.com 

4 

5


1 PapaloteChildren’s 

Museum 

MexicoCi–Mexico 

MX_SIandSPBR 

—Amuseumthatopens 

uptothesquare,tocreate 

continuibetweeninside 

andoutside 



mx-si.net 

spbr.net 

1 

2 AltstadtquartierBüchel 

Aachen–Germany 

ChapmanTaylor 

—Masterplanforanew 

quarterintheheartof 

Aachen’stowncentre, 

introducingnewstreets, 

publicsquares,housing, 

offices,retailanda 

kindergartentocreatea 

thrivingnewdistrict 

Competition entry, 1 st prize 

chapmantaylor.com 

3 SubZeroPavilion 

Almere–Netherlands 

DoepelStrijkers 

—SubZeroisalandmark 

buildingwherebusinesses, 

studentsandknowledge 

institutionswilldevelop 

crossoverinnovations 

aroundthethemesof 

nutrition,healthand 

wellbeingfortheFloriade 

WorldExpoin2022 

Expected completion 2017 

doepelstrijkers.com 

2 

4 Omnia 

Sydney–Australia 

DurbachBlockJa≫ers 

—135high-endluxury 

apartmentswithinasingle 

19-storeytower,whichalso 

incorporatestwolevelsof 

high-endretail 


durbachblockja≫ers.com 

5 HetPlatform 

Utrecht–Netherlands 

VenhoevenCS 

—Asmartandsustainable 

MicroCiforliving, 

working,eating,hanging 

outandworkingout 

Preliminary design, expected 

completion 2018 

venhoevencs.nl 

Rendering MACINA digital film GmbH & Co. Kg

017 

4 

3 

Image courtesy of Greenland Australia 

Rendering A2 Studio 

5


1 

2 

4 

3

019 

1 NessPier_TheGatheringPlace 

Inverness–Scotland 

KHBT(K.Huneck/B.Truempler) 

andSansFaçon 

— The Ness Pier will be a space 

for celebrations and gathering, 

but also for solitary observation; 

as crowds gather, it slowly tilts 

out over the river, stopping just 

above the water level 

Expectedcompletion 2016 

khbt.eu 

sansfacon.org 

2 T3Tower 

Beirut–Lebanon 

Paralx 

— Residential tower 


paralx.com 

3 EPRDFHeadquarters 

Addis Ababa–Ethiopia 

Michiel Clercx Architectuur 

and S7 Architects, Consulting 

Architects & Engineers 

— Headquarters for the Ethiopian 

political par EPRDF in the 

government district of Addis 

Ababa, including office nctions, 

a conference centre and a library 



michielclercx-architectuur.com 

5 

4 LonghuaArtMuseum&Library 

Shenzhen–China 

KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten 

International 

—Thedesignconsistsofthree 

elements, which together form 

an ensemble: an art museum, 

a library and an archive 


expected completion undisclosed 

ksp-architekten.de 

6 

5 OfficeswithTerraces 

Nice–France 

NL*A 

— This office building has had 

its circulation space moved to 

the façade, where it is dotted 

with plants to provide shelter 

from the sun 



nlaparis.com 

6 ForumMedicum 

Lund–Sweden 

Henning Larsen Architects 

— A gathering place for 

employees, students, researchers 

and visitors of the Facul of 

Medicine of Lund Universi 

Invited competition entry, 1 st prize, 


henninglarsen.com

020 Mark 60 Notice Board 

1 

1 Pencho Slaveykov 

Public Library 

Varna–Bulgaria 

—Chybik+KristofArchitects 

&UrbanDesigners 

18,420-m 2 library, with offices, 

exhibition space and café 

Competition entry 

chybik-kristof.com 

2 Air Traffic Control Tower 

Istanbul–Turkey 

RMJM 

— 95-m-high air traffic 

control tower of Istanbul New 

Airport, due to open in 2018 

Competition entry, shortlisted 

rmjm.com 

3 Neighbourhood of 

CreativiandKnowledge 

Toulon–France 

— Corinne Vezzoni et associés 

and Devillers et Associés 

15,500 m 2 dedicated to 

creativi and knowledge, 

including five new buildings 

for higher education and 

administration 



vezzoni-associes.com 

agencedevillers.com 

2 

3


Taiwan Taoyuan 

International 

Airport Terminal 3 

Competition 

In response to the current growth 

in passenger volume, Taiwan 

Taoyuan International Airport 

will be expanded with a third 

terminal that will be able to handle 

an expected 45 million passengers 

per year by 2042. Covering a 

total floor area of 385,000 m 2 ,the 

terminal will offer state-of-the-art 

technology, including self-check-in 

counters and a bag-drop system. 

Partoftheplansareaseriesof 

multinctional buildings that 

will connect the new structure to 

the existing Terminal 2, offering 

an additional 150,000 m 2 office 

space and 45,000 m 2 for hotels. 

Completion is scheduled for 2020. 

2 

3 

1 

1 1 st prize 

CECI Engineering 

Consultants, Rogers Stirk 

Harbour + Partners, Ove Arup 

and Partners Hong Kong and 

Fei&ChengAssociates 

ceci.com.tw 

2 2 nd prize 

Bio-Architecture Formosana, 

UNStudio, April Yang Design 

Studio and Taiwan Engineering 

Consultants Group 

bioarch.com.tw 

3 3 rd prize 

Foster + Partners, Ric Liu 

& Associates and MAA Group 

Consulting Engineers 

fosterandpartners.com

022 Mark 60 

Cross 

Section

Cross Section 


‘All 

ood 

architecture 

MVRDV’sclubhouseinAmsterdam 

provokes a new aphorism, page 030 

hurts’

024 Mark 60 Cross Section 

ReworkingaTree 

Diener & Diener and Martin 

Steinmann felled and reused a 

Sequoia for a museum extension. 

0 

Text Katharina Marchal 

Photos Christian Richters 

Attheinaugurationofthenew 

townmuseuminAarau,Roger 

DienerrecallsthewordsofLuigi 

Snozzi,greattheoristofSwiss 

architecture:‘Everyarchitectural 

interventionrepresentsa 

destruction.Destroyintelligently.’ 

Premiseofthedesignwasthe 

necessitocutdowna120-yearold 

giant redwood to build the 

extension. This gave the Diener 

& Diener team and architecture 

theoretician Martin Steinmann 

theideatousethewoodofthe 

tree in the design of the façade. 

The commission went to artist 

Josef Felix Müller from Sankt 

Gallen. He used the felled tree to 

make panels with representations. 

He created 137 panels with lifesized 

depictions of people, wielding 

a chainsaw as if it were a quill 

pen. These reliefs, converted into 

rubber matrixes, were used to 

cast the concrete façade panels. 

Roger Diener speaks of a ‘profound 

architectonic theme that, like the 

tower’s masonry, forms a whole, 

butatthesametimeconsistsof 

individual building blocks’. 

The 13 th -century fortified 

tower, which has housed the town 

museum since 1939, had become too 

small, necessitating the extension. 

The new entrance looks like a big 

barn door, visitors enter the twostorey 

entry hall from the sloping 

plaza. Glass sliding doors can be 

opened in the summer, turning the 

hall into a kind of covered outdoor 

space. To connect the buildings, the 

floors of the extension correspond 

in height to two of the tower’s 

floors. A spacious staircase 

nctions as a hinge between the 

volumes. Concrete beams span 

both the largest exhibition space 

and the entry hall, which are 

thereforefreeofcolumns.The 

recessed glass upper floor, where 

the offices are located, is also 

striking. A pergola overgrown 

with ivy has been placed at an 

oblique angle, enveloping this 

floor like a second skin. 

dienerdiener.ch

Diener & Diener / Martin Steinmann 

Aarau — Switzerland 


Josef Felix Müller carved 137 images 

into wooden panels – from the tree 

that was cut down for the extension – 

which were subsequently turned into 

moulds for the façade panels.

026 Mark 60 Cross Section

Mecanoo 

Haarlemmermeer — Netherlands 


Stay in Place 

Mecanoo updates Hilton 

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. 

Text Arthur Wortmann 

Photos Mecanoo 

Inthe1980s, the popular image 

of the Netherlands’ main airport, 

Schiphol, shifted from that of 

an operational air-traffic hub to 

that of a genuine ci. The change 

reflected the number of passengers 

making use of the terminal: in 

those days about 40,000 daily. In 

the meantime, that number has 

risen to 150,000. Occupying the 

airport are over 560 businesses, and 

approximately 64,000 people work 

there. Many activities are contained 

within the gigantic terminal 

building, but its immediate 

surroundings are also displaying 

more and more features of a ci. 

Only nobody lives there. 

Recent policy has been 

aimed at the pursuit of a higher 

quali of public spaces and 

facilities: projects that help to 

secure an airport’s competitive 

position within the international 

aviation industry. Today Schiphol 

has a daycare centre, a fitness club 

and a number of restaurants – even 

somewithoutdoorterraces–for 

peoplewho,despitebeingencircled 

by air traffic, like to feel as if they 

are in central Amsterdam. The 

highlight of this thrust towards 

quali is the new Hilton. 

In 1973 Hilton became the 

first hotel at Schiphol. Now, right 

next to the original 277-room 

building (scheduled for demolition) 

is a new hotel with 433 guest rooms 

and23meetingrooms.Acovered 

walkway connects the hotel to the 

airport terminal. Mecanoo – the 

firm commissioned to design a 

distinctive building that would be 

abreathoffreshairwafting 

through the airport – took the brief 

quite literally. The architects rotated 

the hotel 45 degrees, a deviation 

from Schiphol’s urban grid, and 

opted for diagonally positioned, 

diamond-shaped windows that 

mask separations between floors 

as well as between individual 

rooms. The grand spectacle is 

inside, where a 42-m-high atrium 

forms the heart of the building. 

Travellers with no interest in 

watching planes land and take 

off can book a room with a view 

of this new metropolitan space. 

mecanoo.nl 

+1 

Typical Plan


AP Atelier designed Bolt: a 25-m-high 

steel cylinder that rises from the top 

of a denct 60-m-high blast rnace 

in Lower Vítkovice, Ostrava. Visitors 

can climb a 250-m-long walkway to 

the pinnacle for a wonderl view of 

the surroundings.

AP Atelier 

Ostrava — Czech Republic 


Full Circle 

AP Atelier’s high-rise 

extension crowns Ostrava’s 

industrial heritage. 

Section 

Plan 

Text Adam Štěch 

PhotosTomášSouček 

Since 2009, architect Josef 

Pleskot of AP Atelier has been 

working to revitalize Lower 

Vítkovice, a former industrial 

area of Ostrava. Pleskot’s master 

plan is for a completely new ci 

district that offers unexpected 

historical, educational and 

cultural experiences, all built on 

nowdenctfactorygrounds. 

After completing several 

big projects – including the 

multinctional concert hall Gong 

andtheWorldofTechnology 

Centre – he designed and realized 

Bolt, a watchtower, café, club and 

exhibition room set atop a former 

blast rnace. 

The design of the 

structure, which crowns the 

area’s manufacturing heritage, 

was inspired by Russian 

constructivism and the British 

high-techmovementofthe 

1980s. Both sles evolved from 

the principles of industrial 

architecture. ‘Seeing the blast 

rnace without smoke coming 

outofitmademesad,’says 

Pleskot. ‘I decided to restore 

an industrial dynamic to the 

top of the rnace, at least in a 

symbolic way.’ The tower’s helical 

design immediately evokes an 

image of Monument to the Third 

International, an unrealized 

project by Soviet architect and 

artist Vladimir Tatlin. 

Pleskot added a 

25-m-high extension to the 

original 60-m-high blast rnace 

in the form of a spiralling steel 

cylinder featuring a 250-m-long 

walkway that leads to the top 

of the building. Visitors are 

invited to take a guided tour 

of the rnace before having 

refreshments in the café – which, 

like the club, encircles a central 

shaft – and climbing the stairs to 

thepinnacleorusingthelift.At 

77.7 m above ground level, they 

find themselves at the highest 

point in Ostrava, overlooking a 

formidable industrial complex 

now recognized as a national 

cultural monument. With his 

latest addition to Lower Vítkovice, 

Pleskot honours the raw beau 

and expressive power of a golden 

era in the history of Ostrava. 

apatelier.cz


Red Rag 

MVRDV does 

the wave. 

Text David Keuning 

Photos Daria Scagliola & Stijn Brakkee 

Inthisageofstatutorytendering 

procedures,RFPsandRFQs,you 

mightalmostforgetthatsome 

commissionsstillcomeabout 

viafriendsorfamily.Evenif 

you’reknownasWinyMaas.His 

brother-in-lawisfriendswith 

theformerchairmanofatennis 

clubonIJburg,amanmadeisland 

ontheeastsideofAmsterdam 

wherethekeystothefirsthomes 

werehandedover 15 years ago. 

The members wanted something 

different to all that colourless 

new-build for once, and the 

chairman happened to know 

an architect. 

Maas derives just as 

much pleasure from tackling 

small-scale projects like this as 

he does from landmark projects 

like the Markthal market hall and 

apartment complex in Rotterdam, 

as he explained during a viewing: 

‘TheolderIget,thenicerIfind 

the architectural handiwork.’ 

For the tennis club he came up 

with a simple and consistently 

implemented concept. Halfway 

across, the roof of a box finished 

in bright red polyurethane 

transforms into a voluptuous 

curve that serves as a stand. The 

counter-form provides the ceiling 

of a clubhouse that is realized in 

nothing but wood. Maas proudly 

points out the most beautil 

detail: at its lowest point the 

ceiling very nearly touches the 

floor, and he has managed to avoid 

placing a column at that point. 

It’s just a pi that a stairway is 

needed to the outside in order to 

reachthebottomsteps,which 

obscurestheviewofthebandof 

glass that has been meticulously 

kept open. 

The fact that the 

architectural handiwork doesn’t 

work out equally well across 

the board comes to light when 

we step up onto the stand. The 

proportion between the rise of 

the step and the depth of the 

tread varies, and the stairway is 

also much steeper than the gently 

raked cross section su≫ests. So 

this reporter fell flat on his face 

– right in front of everyone. Does 

this structure actually comply 

with building regulations? ‘In the 

planning application we never 

called the roof a stand,’ says Maas. 

Time for a new aphorism: all good 

architecture hurts. 

mvrdv.nl

MVRDV 

Amsterdam — Netherlands 


Plan 

Roof


ConnectingMarket 

ARX links 

two streets 

withafivestorey 

market 

building. 

Text Ana Martins 

Photos FG+SG 

After the former Abrantes 

Municipal Market was closed by 

Portuguese food-safe authorities, 

Lisbon architecture studio ARX 

stepped in to design a new market 

building. Faced with a narrow 

plot on a slope between two 

streets that lie on either side of 

a cramped row of dwellings, the 

architects devised a solution that 

notonlyintegratesthemarket 

into its surroundings, but also 

blends building and ci. The 

1,280-m 2 , five-storey building has 

a whitewashed concrete shell that 

represents contemporanei in the 

midst of old houses. José Mateus, 

who cofounded ARX in 1991 

with his brother, Nuno Mateus, 

discusses the project. 

How did you deal with the 

difficult site? 

JOSÉ MATEUS (ARX): The 

market building is not only 

onapronouncedslope;itisalso 

set between two streets. We 

realized that we could connect 

them by adding a staircase at the 

northern edge of the plot. This 

way, the market works as an 

alternative street; it becomes an 

integral part of the ci and has 

a lively air of spontanei. 

From certain perspectives, as you 

move through the market, you 

notice that curved and straight 

lines seem to come together to 

form abstract ‘paintings’. Is this an 

intentional – and aesthetic – part 

of the design? 

Like most architects, we have 

a sequence of images in mind, 

almost like cinematic travels, as 

we develop our designs. In the 

case of the central market space, 

we imagined the experience of 

shoppers roaming from stand to 

stand. The idea of movement led 

tothefluiddesignofthe 

mezzanines and spiral staircase. 

Why did you break up the main 

volume into different parts? 

We were inspired by a sculpture 

created by Pedro Cabrita Reis, 

who used lengths of aluminium 

profilesinaworkbasedon 

cutting and displacement. The 

effect is very powerl, thanks to 

the tension that occurs between 

the upper and lower pieces of his 

sculpture. We wanted to explore 

the phenomenon, and we did so 

by breaking the building into 

parcels. It is not something new. 

Sanaa came up with a similar 

solution in the design for the 

NewMuseuminNewYork,butin 

Abrantes it opened the way for us 

to build a bridge between the scale 

of the building and that of the 

surrounding streets. 

arx.pt

ARX 

Abrantes — Portugal 


Opposite A false sense of symmetry between 

the narrow stairs and the chimney of the 

house to one side of the market building plays 

with the idea of equilibrium and balance – 

a theme found in much of ARX’s work. 

Long Section 

+4 

+3 

Natural light coming through a southfacing 

clerestory bathes all floors. 

+2 

0


Chemistry 

0 

+2 

−1 

+1 

Atelier Tekuto’s latest house is an 

experiment involving volcanic ash. 

Text Cathelijne Nuijsink 

Photos Jérémie Souteyrat 

Innovativetechnologies, 

newstructuralsystemsand 

‘forgotten’ regional materials 

arethekeystoAtelierTekuto’s 

design approach. How does this 

agenda work together with the 

clients’ requirements in a private 

residence like this? 

YASUHIRO YAMASHITA (Atelier 

Tekuto): The clients, both chemists, 

had quite specific requirements 

from the beginning. They wanted 

a house that is a daring piece of 

architecture and environmentally 

friendly at the same time. They 

also desired an exposed concrete 

finish, both on the interior and 

exterior. Given these requests 

we conducted a series of studies 

on how concrete was used in 

the twentieth century and how 

it should be used going forward 

into the twen-first century, and 

came across Shirasu. Shirasu 

concrete uses the volcanic 

by-product of pyroclastic flow 

deposits as a substitute for the 

fine a≫regates in concrete such 

as sand. It is a natural resource 

found abundantly in Kagoshima 

Prefecture in the south of Japan. 

Its porous structure is anticipated 

to give concrete humidi control 

and deodorizing effects. Given 

these qualities we were convinced 

that this material would meet the 

clients’ expectations. 

It took over two years of 

research before the Ministry 

of Construction granted special 

permission to use this new 

concrete. Why all the effort? 

Japan is lacking in the fine 

a≫regate used for the 

manufacture of concrete. River 

sand is either exhausted or 

banned for the protection of the 

environment, while alternatives 

such as rocks and concrete 

from demolition sites require 

tremendous energy and therefore 

generate an increased level of 

CO 2 

emissions. To use Shirasu 

is to utilize as yet disregarded 

resources, with the added 

advantage of bringing economic 

benefitstotheregion.Presently 

it costs roughly ¥500 (€3.8) per 

tonne to dispose this material 

but as a replacement for sand, 

thevaluecouldbeasmuchas 

¥3,000 (€23) per tonne. To that 

end, we have established an 

association, RMUN (Regional 

Material Utilization Network) 

with the intent of freely sharing 

this technology with architects 

and construction companies 

who wish to use this pe of 

concrete, helping to develop 

and vitalize towns and regions 

in Japan and in any volcanic 

country, for that matter. 

tekuto.com 

Cutting one of the volume’s corners has created 

a sense of spaciousness in the four-storey house.

Atelier Tekuto 

Too — Japan 


Photo Atelier Tekuto


In Denial 

Schmidt Hammer Lassen 

designed a fortress for the 

ICC, but is loath to call it that. 

Site 

The landscape design was done by SLA, who teamed 

up with Schmidt Hammer Lassen for the competition. 

TextArthurWortmann 

PhotosHufton+Crow 

In December, the International 

Criminal Court (ICC), established 

in2002,movedintoitsfirst 

permanentaccommodation, 

situatedinTheHagueand 

designed by Danish firm Schmidt 

Hammer Lassen. Six volumes 

occupy a joint base. Five of 

these accommodate officesfor 

thenearly 1,000 employees; 

thesixthistheCourtTower, 

the highest and most centrally 

located volume, which contains 

stacked courtrooms. In the ICC, 

individuals are prosecuted that 

are suspected of genocide, crimes 

against humani and war crimes. 

The complex looks 

abstract and demure. Its 

appearance is dominated on 

all sides by modular façades 

with rectangular windows. 

Nothing betrays its nction. Is 

it an office building, a research 

institute, a prison perhaps? 

Duringthepresstour,clientand 

architectdidn’tmissasingle 

opportuni to emphasize the 

supposedly ‘welcoming’, ‘open’ 

and ‘transparent’ character of 

the complex. This was a curious 

choice, for those are precisely the 

concepts that do not apply here. 

Approaching the building, you 

see five lines of defence. The first 

is a dune landscape that raises 

a barrier between the building 

and the public road. Walking 

up the dune, the omnipresent 

surveillance cameras immediately 

have their eye on you. Then follow 

a metres-high concrete wall, 

a moat and the actual façade 

of the building. 

For the press tour, we 

entered via the main entrance – 

a separate structure that is part 

of the surrounding wall. We 

passed securi gates and our 

bags were scanned. We were

Schmidt Hammer Lassen 

The Hague — Netherlands 


given to understand that most 

of the building’s spaces were not 

accessible for reasons of securi 

and that in many places, taking 

pictures was prohibited or subject 

to strict guidelines. 

We encountered the 

most extreme example of this 

at the top of the Court Tower, 

themostprestigiousfloor,we 

were told, from which the view 

over the dune landscape and the 

North Sea is truly magnificent. 

Taking pictures of this view was 

outofthequestion,however, 

because snipers in the pay of 

the accused might well analyse 

the photographs to determine 

from where they were taken and 

subsequently open fire on the 

windows. You see, witnesses 

involved in ongoing processes 

stay on this floor. Or do they? 

Momentslater,itturnsout 

that the space is only used by 

the ICC staff that chaperone 

the witnesses. The witnesses 

themselves are housed in 

viewless rooms deep inside 

the building (which do 

have slights). 

So, what is this building, 

if it isn’t welcoming, open and 

transparent? It’s a nctional 

machine, with lots of glass and 

steel, grey stone, endless numbers 

of carpet tiles and brown-beige 

walls – everything that has 

a soothing effect on people 

processing traumatic events 

according to volume I of some 

psychology handbook. And it’s 

probably a logistic masterpiece, 

with its separate routing for 

judges, suspects, witnesses, 

victims and spectators. But we 

don’t know that for sure, because 

the floor plans must remain 

secret, of course. 

shl.dk 

A new custom-made façade system was developed for 

the project, made of a composite material known in the 

aviation and wind turbine industry.


Heinrich Degelo ‘fractured’ the façades of 

the building to make it appear smaller, better 

integrating it into the surroundings.

Degelo Architects 

Freiburg — Germany 


Brilliant Cuts 

Degelo’suniversi library is 

a diamond-like arrangement 

of facets. 

0 

TextKatharinaMarchal 

PhotosBarbaraBuehler 

‘TheoldUniversiLibrary 

Freiburglookedlikeameteorite,’ 

saysarchitectHeinrichDegelo 

aboutthepredecessorofthenew 

building.Thestructurefrom1978 

wasn’t just voluminous, taking up 

a lot of urban space, it also showed 

architectural and energetic 

deficiencies. Because of the costs, 

complete demolition wasn’t an 

option for the ci at first. For 

its competition entry Degelo 

Architects therefore only cut away 

parts of the building. And so the 

idea of a diamond was born. That 

conceptendured,evenafterthe 

ownerdecideditwouldbecheaper 

to break down most of the original 

building; in the now realized 

library only the basement and 

three stairwells from the original 

construction remain. 

Like a glass mountain, the 

new universi library rises from 

the earth. Recesses and protruding 

façades mark the main entrances; 

opposite the neoclassical theatre 

the receding façade enlarges the 

theatre square. The crack in the 

façade reflects the middle ressault 

of the universi building on the 

other side. 

Inside, the library consists 

of two parts. The quiet area is 

reserved for users with a library 

pass and individual students. 

In the public area things are 

livelier, louder and more social. 

There’sacaféwithaccesstothe 

terraceonthegroundfloor.Two 

atria provide space for the stairs, 

which lend access to the private 

zone; these voids are visible in 

the façade. 

All façades are horizontally 

articulated over the ll height 

of the building. Movement 

arises through the alternation 

of open and closed façade parts 

and their constantly changing 

positions, in accordance with the 

principle of a zipper. Because of 

the tilted façade elements, the 

surrounding area is mirrored 

differently every time, in both 

the reflective glass and the steel 

façade components. 

degelo.net

040 Mark 60 Cross Section 

Office in 

the Tropics 

SUBenvisioneditsstudioasa 

laboratory for tropical architecture. 

Text Danny Wicaksono 

Photos Paskalis Khrisno Ayodyantoro 

Thecareersofarchitectural 

duoSUB,MuhammadSagitha 

andWiyogaNurdiansyah,are 

juststartingoff. Although they 

have already completed several 

interesting designs and just 

won the Indonesian Institute 

of Architects Jakarta Chapter’s 

Award, they still think that the 

best is yet to come. ‘We are still 

searching for ways to sharpen 

the formula for our architectural 

designs,’ Wiyoga explains. A 

formulathataccordingtothe 

architects is best represented in 

their modest studio, which they 

completed recently. 

Driven by the thought that they 

need some stabiliintheiryoung 

careers,theyinvestedalltheir 

savingsina70-m 2 building that 

will serve as a laboratory. Here, 

they can explore the possibilities 

of architecture in the tropics. 

Located in a suburb of Jakarta, 

an area called Bintaro, the threestorey 

building has all the different 

spaces they need to be able to 

grow the studio. 

The ground floor contains 

a service space, meeting room and 

flights of stairs that can be used for 

small gatherings, thus extending 

the floor area. The first-floor office 

space has room for up to 12 people 

– anticipating ture growth – and 

the roof-top pebble garden offers 

the possibili to enjoy the friendly 

tropical climate after a long day 

of work. 

There is a relaxing 

atmosphere to the building. The 

casual brick façade, exposed 

concrete and low-cost materials can 

be seen all around the building. Big 

windows allow unobstructed views 

ofthesurroundings.Sunlight,heat, 

wind, rain and humidi; they can 

all be experienced in this office. And 

that’s a rare quali in a work space. 

subvisionary.com

SUB 

Jakarta — Indonesia 

041 

+1 

Long Section 

SUB’s studio features a casual brick façade, exposed 

concrete and low-cost materials. Big windows allow 

unobstructed views of the surroundings. 

0 

Roof


Sign Language 

1 

2 

3 4 

TextandgraphicsTheoDeutinger, 

StefanosFilippasandLiamCooke 

Theriseoftheiconshasgonehand 

inhandwithindustrialization, 

increasingmassmobiliand 

growingmasscommunication. 

Thehighestconcentrationofsign 

languageisfoundinpublicspaces 

suchasroads,airportsandthe 

WorldWideWeb–areaswherea 

highdiversiofnationalities,but 

alsoahighdiversioflevelsof 

educationaretobeexpected.The 

resultofthisisthat4-year-olds 

nowknowthemeaningofazebra 

crossing,thesignforatoiletor 

theYouTubeiconevenbeforethey 

learntoreadandwrite. 

Newsetsofcyphersare 

addedtothislanguageinwaves. 

Oneoftheearliestwasthe 

introductionofinternationalroad 

signs,standardizedbytheParisian 

InternationalRoadCongressin 

1908. To deal with the foreseeable 

increase of mass events and mass 

tourism Otl Aicher, Germany’s 

most influential graphic designer, 

created another set of icons with 

his representation of athletes for 

the summer Olympics in 1972. 

The next wave of sign language 

was introduced by industries 

such as rniture manufacturers, 

whoturnedtographicsmoreand 

more often in their assembly and 

instruction manuals, which they 

distribute worldwide. Today, emoji 

are emerging at a rapid speed, 

providing people with a quick way 

to express their feelings to a large 

set of intercultural friends. 

With the upcoming 

introduction of augmented reali, 

even more signs are sure to appear. 

Every square millimetre of the 

digital screen, glass or display 

is utterly valuable, a fact that 

whittles every application, notation 

ormessagedowntoacypher. 

What we already have today is 

a beautil sea of icons. A sign 

language comparable to Egyptian 

hieroglyphs, yet understood 

everywhere and therefore the 

world’s first truly global language. 

12 

17 

20 

25 

15% 

26 

Across 

Down 

27 

1. Life 

11. Avalanche 

12. Shopping 

16. At the beach 

17. Fast food 

18. Triathlon 

19. Hipster 

20. Moving out 

24. Train crash 

26. Train ride 

27. Car rental 

28. Chernobyl 

30. Tourist 

36. Bank robbery 

38. Injury 

39. Date night 

40. Slippery pier 

41. Jo≫ing 

2. Playground 

3. Mall shopping 

4. Inaccessible 

5. E-mailing 

6. Optimism 

7. Syrian regees 

8. Dangerous waters 

9. Biathlon 

10. Broken glass 

13. Working day 

14. Rainy day 

15. Car accident 

16. Hunting 

21. Train to the airport 

22. Camping trip 

23. Guys’ night out 

25. Thirs 

29. Wildfire 

31. Disabled 

32. Zebra crossing 

33. Night swimming 

34. Withdrawing money 

35. Failed surgery 

37. Awakening 

29 

30 

32 33 

36 

39 

Sources:aiga.org/iso.org/segd.org/brandsoftheworld.com / flaticon.com 

Some of the icons are designed by Freepik. 

40

Infographic 

043 

5 

6 7 8 

9 

10 

11 

13 

14 15 

16 

18 19 

21 22 23 

24 

28 

31 

34 35 

37 

38 

41


Plaza and foyer form 

one continuous space.

MX_SI 

Granada — Spain 

045 

Avoid the Void 

MX_SI sheds light on 

Federico García Lorca. 

0 

Long Section 

Text Rafael Gómez-Moriana 

Photos Pedro Pegenaute 

Inrecentdecades,architecture 

commemoratingviolentdeathhas 

picallyreliedonadark,austere 

andmarkedlyempspaceto 

symbolizeabsence:thecathartic 

‘voidspace’.FortheFederico 

GarcíaLorcaCulturalCentrein 

Granada,however,architecture 

studioMX_SI,facedwithasite 

borderedalmostentirelybythe 

backsofhistoricalbuildings,opted 

foracomplexthatisdaylightfilled,openandinviting.A 

statementbytheyoungBarcelonabasedarchitectsfromMexicoand 

Sloveniaexplainstheirtreatment 

ofthe10 linear meters of exterior 

exposure they had to work with: 

‘We introduced light through the 

roof and made a continuous space 

by blending the centre’s foyer with 

the plaza in front.’ 

Federico García Lorca 

was aGranadino poet, dramatist 

and musician who died in the 

summer of 1936, shortly after 

the outbreak of the Spanish 

Civil War, at the age of 38. He 

was killed by Francoist fascists. 

The exact location of Lorca’s 

remains is a mystery to this 

day, despite attempts to unearth 

them (including one by drunken 

British punk rocker Joe Strummer 

in 1984). The cultural centre 

honouring Lorca’s legacy houses 

a range of nctions: auditorium, 

gallery, library, archive and an 

almost seamless plaza-foyer that 

features a bar-café. Seen from 

Plaza Romanilla, adjacent to the 

Granada Cathedral, the building 

is nearly invisible, apart from its 

enormous nnel-shaped portico. 

The nnel effect is the result of 

a series of deep concrete 

structural slabs with varying 

angular folds that filter and 

diffuse the zenithal light. 

Lorca, who was 

executed for his openly liberal 

views and homosexual identi, 

would undoubtedly prefer to 

be remembered in just such 

a positive light. 

mx-si.net


Self- 

Made Surf 

Escape 

WMR Arquitectos 

builds a holiday 

home for friends. 

0 

Text and photos Sergio Pirrone 

‘Thisyoungcouple–goodfriends 

ofours–waitedpatientlywhile 

longingfortheirdreamtobe 

realized,’saysFelipeWedelesof 

WMRArquitectos.‘Afewyears 

agotheyboughta6,400-m 2 plot 

of land on a panoramic site, with 

the intention of building a lowcost 

but well-constructed escape 

fromtheci.’TheyaskedWedeles 

and his partners, Jorge Manieu 

andMacarenaRabat,todesign 

something simple, nctional 

and spacious. 

The house had to be 

comfortable and open to the 

surrounding scenery. It also had 

to protect the occupants from 

a dominant sea wind. Situated 

on a small rise at the foothills of 

the coastal mountain range that 

overlooks Matanzas Bay – once 

an unknown fishing village, 

Matanzas is now an attraction 

for surfers and windsurfers – the 

holiday home enjoys a magnificent 

view of the Pacific. 

The house overlooks the 

ocean to the west, and its slanted 

roof, which faces north, allows 

sunlight to enter the interior 

throughout the day, bathing 

the living area in warmth and 

light. The house consists of a 

living room with open kitchen, 

two bedrooms, a bathroom 

and a semidetached storeroom 

for surfing and windsurfing 

equipment. Adjacent to the house 

are an extra shower, terraces, a 

fireplace and a hot tub. 

The construction process 

deserves our attention, but not 

because it was so uncomplicated 

or because the house is clad in 

local pine. Humble and low-cost, 

Casa Perez-Muller is mainly the 

work of the owners themselves. 

The architects offered basic 

engineering information, but 

their clients supervised the site at 

all times. Two local construction 

workers formed the remaining key 

pieces of the puzzle. Friendship 

and a few lamb barbecues made 

the difference. 

wmrarq.cl

WMR Arquitectos 

Matanzas — Chile 

047 

Casa Perez-Muller is a collaborative project 

that involved the owners, the architects and 

two local construction workers, all of whom 

built the holiday house together.


Re(m)cycle 

Shift reuses early Koolhaas 

ideas in museum design. 

Text Jos Bosman 

Photos René de Wit 

TheMuseumSquareinKerkrade, 

whichfirstonlyfeatured 

technologymuseumContinium, 

nowhastwonewadditions,the 

ColumbusEarthTheatreand 

designmuseumCube.Oneofthe 

twoopeningexhibitionsinCube, 

‘DesignIdentities’,wascompiled 

bytheRedDotInstitute.Thefact 

thatarchitecturefirmShift was 

given the commission to design 

the extension of the Museumplein, 

shortly after it won the 

Red Dot design award 2012, 

was unsurprising. 

Seeing the result, it’s 

hardnottothinkbacktothe 

early work of OMA. The design 

includes various OMA motifs – and 

surprisingly freshly and beautilly 

executed at that. The orange portal 

near the entrance brings the 

Kunsthal in Rotterdam to mind. 

It’s amazing how OMA’s famous 

idea of the ‘captive globe’ can be 

experiencedhereintheColumbus 

Earth Theatre: a hemisphere with 

a 3D projection space that visitors 

can look at from above. But it’s 

especially the articulation of the 

villa that Rem Koolhaas once 

designed together with Linda 

Spear that can help to better 

understand the spatial scenario. 

The villa was an abstract 

montage of entirely different 

spatial experiences. 

InKerkrade,too,anumber 

of isolated elements have clearly 

been connected. A path leads to 

and from the station along a glass 

façade; on it a large, apparently 

floating, black beam volume (with 

strikingly few supports) that 

partly nctions as a canopy. The 

brick gravel of the patio, its tenniscourtcolourcontinuinginthefloor 

and patio walls of the museum, 

showsthroughtheglassfaçade. 

The floor of the canteen is mint 

green. Here, characteristic elements 

from the promising range of 

ideas of the young OMA – mostly 

on paper at the time – shine in 

actually realized architecture. 

That sense of refinement also 

applies to the façade of the cube 

and the randomly rotated stairs. 

The result is a more than successl 

museum complex. 

shift-au.com

Shift 

Kerkrade — Netherlands 

049 

0 

01 Continium Discovery Center 

02 Columbus Earth Theatre 

03 Cube Design Museum 

04 C-Square Communi Area 

01 

04 

02 


Long Section 

Two staircases lead to the sunken entrance area. One 

is orientated towards the train station and the other 

towards the town’s centre. 

A large part of the museum 

extension is located 

underground. The existing 

sunken patio has been 

extended underneath the 

new buildings and connects 

old and new.


French Balcony 

Brenac&Gonzalez 

sculpts with balconies. 

Text Emily Downing 

Photos Sergio Grazia 

Typical Floor 

ThedocksofSaint-Ouen,just 

northofParis,areundergoing 

arapidurbantransformation. 

Aspartofthisdevelopment 

ParisianfirmBrenac&Gonzalez 

wasappointedtodesignaseries 

ofresidentialtowersonasite 

locatedadjacenttotheSeine 

River,withviewsoverthe 

recentlycompletedGrandParcde 

Saint-Ouen.Thefirmperceived 

the12-storeyblocksasindividual 

sculpturalforms,eachwithits 

ownidentiing characteristics, 

composed in a rational 

arrangement to articulate an 

expressive architectural language 

across the vast site. 

Apartment block D3b-Lot 02 is 

situated at the centre of this new 

urban advancement. Enveloped 

in a striking metallic skin, the 

building’s façades playlly reflect 

and distort natural light. Inspired 

by Japanese origami techniques, 

orthogonal balconies puncture 

the building’s planes, jutting 

through the metallic coating 

that folds and wraps to give the 

appearance of structural support. 

Brenac & Gonzalez associate 

Emmanuel Person comments: ‘The 

inside of each of these balcony 

pods is coated in white paint that 

contrasts with the metallic look 

of the rest of the façades, as if to 

assert the idea of disconnecting 

them from the original skin of 

the building.’ The folding planes 

also provide extra privacy for 

the residents by distorting views 

across neighbouring balconies 

without reducing the quali of 

light in the interiors. 

The apartment blocks 

are joined at their bases by 

a double-height plinth, ing 

the whole site together and 

providing a secure access point 

to the entrance halls and the 

landscaped inner courard 

situated at the centre of 

the project. 

brenac-gonzalez.fr

Brenac & Gonzalez 

Saint-Ouen — France 

051


Sprengel and the 

Chocolate Factory 

Meili Peter’s museum extension reflects 

the building’s sweet origins. 

Text Florian Heilmeyer 

Photos Herling / Gwose / Werner 

Itallbeganwithchocolate.In1969 

chocolate manufacturer Bernhard 

Sprengel donated his 20 th -century 

art collection – financed with 

money earned selling chocolate 

–tohishometown,oncondition 

that the ci would build a new 

museum, which eventually opened 

in 1979. Since 1984 it carries the 

name of the generous benefactor, 

and the Sprengel Museum 

Hannover now ranks high 

among German museums known 

for modern art. The original 

architecture is modest: the large, 

elongated, low-rise volume 

stands on the embankment 

of a main street, nearly hidden 

from sight behind trees. Not 

an iconic structure, it is a silent 

building. A 1993 extension did 

little to change the building’s 

architectural aesthetics. 

A steadily growing 

collection, however, required a 

second extension. Swiss architects 

Marcel Meili and Markus Peter 

won the competition for its design 

in 2010 with a plan that proposed 

the addition of a big black box to 

the museum, a concept quite unlike 

that of the earlier buildings. Inside, 

a staircase rises in a dynamic swirl 

to access the ‘dancing rooms’ and, 

at the same time, to connect the 

black box to the existing building. 

‘Dancing rooms’ is the architects’ 

name for ten new galleries of 

various sizes and heights; these 

spaces are slightly askew in 

relation to one another, as well 

as to the building’s otherwise 

strict grid. 

Clad in anthracite-coloured 

concrete with different finishes, 

the rather brutalist extension 

appears raw and rough. Thick 

banding reminiscent of relief 

work gives the façade rhythm 

and depth and an attractive play 

of light and shadow on a bright 

day. The layered exterior can also 

be seen as a migh machine 

ready to roll, perhaps signiing 

the movement of visitors inside 

the building. Or do those 

dark concrete ‘bars’ symbolize 

chocolate, the substance that 

made Sprengel’s dream come true? 

meilipeter.ch

Meili Peter Architekten 

Hannover — Germany 

053 

Thenewextensionfeaturesaclusteroften 

newgalleries,whichareslightlyaskewin 

relationtooneanother,aswellastothe 

building’sstrictgrid.Becausethesespaces 

have different dimensions and heights, they 

seem to pierce the roof. 

+1


Shelters by 

the Sea 

Lumo’s 50 holiday shelters 

channel visitor traffic in 

a coastal protection zone. 

Text Gili Merin 

Photos Lumo Arkitekter 

NotallDanisharchitectsdesign 

ski-slopedpowerstationsthat 

puffsmokerings.Ahumblesitespecific 

intervention by Aarhusbased 

Lumo is making a major 

environmental and contextual 

impact on its surroundings. 

Integrated into the wild landscape 

of the South Funen Archipelago 

– a group of 55 low-lying islands 

in the Baltic Sea – are Lumo’s 

holiday shelters. The architects 

realized a total of 50 units on 19 

carelly selected sites spread over 

the coastal zones of four island 

municipalities: Langeland, Ærø, 

Svendborg and Faaborg-Midtn. 

Blue Landmarks – the name 

given to Lumo’s quaint wooden 

structures – are asymmetric follies 

defined by strong angular lines and 

irregular contours. Reminiscent of 

traditional fishermen’s huts, they 

are clad in black-stained shingles 

andpuncturedbyportholes,as 

well as by rectangular openings 

that offer panoramic views of 

the majestic island scenery. With 

interiorsthatrangefrom5to25 

m 2 andheightsfromonetothree 

storeys, the cabins offer guests a 

generous choice of options. Three 

units serve as overnight shelters 

for two to seven people and 

include saunas or picnic areas; 

one is an elevated bird-watching 

platform; and one nctions solely 

as a lavatory. According to the 

specific climatic and geographical 

aspects of their settings, they 

appear individually or collectively, 

as solitary volumes or as part of 

acluster. 

Working in collaboration 

with the Danish Nature Agency, 

a branch of the country’s Ministry 

of Environment, Lumo integrated 

the Blue Landmarks into a 

strategic coastal protection zone 

that not only channels visitor 

traffic but also bolsters a yearround 

recreational infrastructure 

that counteracts the need for 

makeshift campsites, which 

often harm the seaside. Kayakers, 

boaters and divers attracted by 

the convenience of the shelters 

seem set to ensure the project’s 

success as a welcome addition 

to the natural framework of 

the Baltic coast. 

lumo.dk

Lumo Arkitekter 

South Funen Archipelago — Denmark 

055


Perspective

Perspective 

057 

‘It’s better 

to take 

an im erfect 

decision 

than 

JanBenthemondesigning 

stations, page 098 

to decide 

nothin 

at 

all’

058 Mark 60 Perspective 

Station 

to 

Station 

Amsterd m 

Newtrainstationsin 

Rotterdam, Arnhem 

and Breda turn the 

NS’s traditional values 

upside down. 

Text 

Wies Sanders 

The Ha ue 

Rotterdam 

Breda

Various Architects 

Netherlands 

059 

Utrecht 

Arnhem


De 

Inktpot–theInkwell–isthe 

nicknameofthebrickedifice 

calledMainBuildingIIIinthe 

ciofUtrecht,thenervecentre 

ofDutchrailwaycompanyNS. 

Itwasdesignedin1918byNS’s 

in-house architect George van 

Heukelom, who translated the 

characteristics of the railway 

company into architecture: 

reliable, hierarchical, closed, 

autonomous and gloomy. You 

need only look at recent NS 

stations to realize that a century 

later, those values have been 

turned upside down. 

Untilabout1995,theNS 

had an in-house architecture 

department as well as an in-house 

principal, with offices in Main 

Building III. The architects were 

notonlyontheNS’spayroll, 

they were also bound by a strict 

corporate ideology that included 

both the yellow-blue house sle 

with matching graphic images 

and measurements, logistic 

processing, technical standards 

and architectural sle. These 

were largely determined by the 

board and by the principal. Since 

the1980s,thedesignofthearea 

around the station was also 

castasmuchaspossibleinthe 

mould of the ideal station square: 

the focus was on pedestrians, 

whofromonecentrallocation 

could opt for a bicycle or a taxi, 

a short walk to the bus stops or 

a–somewhatlonger–walkto 

adjacent offices, car parks and 

finally the ci itself. 

Around 1990, three things 

happened that had a large impact 

on this – hitherto unshakeable 

– railway bastion. The first was 

a change in ambition: from 

management to spectacular 

growth. The ambitious plan Rail 

21 was developed to double the 

rail network and the number 

of passengers, to turn the six 

stations involved – Amsterdam, 

Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht, 

Breda and Arnhem – into urban 

hubs, and to build two highspeed 

train lines that would 

connect the Netherlands to 

France (Thalys) and Germany 

(ICE). This infrastructural plan 

was in line with national spatial 

planning as described in the 

Fourth Memorandum on Spatial 

Planning Extra and is to this day 

the basis for the major station 

projects, of which Rotterdam and 

Arnhem have now been officially 

completed. The conversion of 

the remaining four stations is 

still ongoing. 

The second change 

since the millennium was 

the renewed success of large 

cities as attractive living and 

working environments, which 

subsequently led to an increase in 

numbers of passengers, cyclists 

and shared mobili users. 

Around the majori of the larger 

stations, this created chaotic and 

unappealing traffic areas filled 

with buses, bicycles and other 

transit services. 

The third change 

made itself felt in large parts 

of Europe: privatization and 

commercialization of previously 

public services such as public 

transport. This eventually made 

it possible for architects who had 

never designed a station before 

to tender for the commissions to 

build new stations – for years the 

domain of in-house architects. In 

addition, the commercialization 

required an increased programme 

for retail and offices; privatization 

subsequently led to complex 

and unclear responsibilities, and 

the aforementioned successl 

urban development and growth 

ambitions of the railway company 

hugely increased the complexi 

of the station projects. Though 

the plans thus had to survive 

20 difficult process years (or 

more), the result is a series of 

experiments that were never 

before possible, as evidenced by 

the new stations in Rotterdam, 

Arnhem and Breda in particular. 

Both the ci and the 

residents of Rotterdam are 

proud that the station project 

was realized on time and within 

budget. Rotterdam Centraal has 

the most classic and relatively 

uncomplicated setup of the three 

stations discussed here. It was 

split into four separate projects 

and divided over different 

architects, whereas the other 

twostationsweredesigned 

indelibly in a single gesture. The 

sub-renovations in Rotterdam 

comprised the underground 

connection of the Randstad Rail to 

the subway; a car park with water 

storage and the rerbishment 

of the open-air tram and bus 

stations. An entirely new 

phenomenon, a free underground 

bicycle garage, was also added to 

the renovated station. 

The architects in 

Arnhem and Breda opted to 

add complexi to the building 

task by combining all of the 

programmatic elements in an 

unusual way to create a visual 

spectacle. In both stations, offices 

and infrastructure are used 

to create height and décor; in 

Breda the station roof is a large 

parking deck and in Arnhem 

thestationroofisthefloorofa 

convention centre and a road. 

In Arnhem, the bus station, 

trolley bus station and parking 

nctions are a logical and 

appealing part of the transport 

hub, while these elements are 

situated at some distance and in 

relatively unappealing locations 

in Rotterdam. As a result, the 

creation of a spatial décor in 

Rotterdam was only possible 

by covering the station hall 

with an oversized roof. Like any 

other building, the Rotterdam 

station conforms to the regime 

of the Rotterdam ci centre 

development: a collection of 

separate elements, logically 

arranged within the established 

grid of the public space. Quite 

a boring design principle, but 

it works and has the flexibili 

necessary, considering that 

almost every building around this 

stationhasbeenreplacedinthe 

past 30 years. 

Rotterdam Centraal 

doesn’t represent a break with 

previous decades of station 

building: it neatly follows the 

principles of NS and ci that say 

pedestrians and daylight are to 

be given free rein. For Rotterdam 

that’s an excellent choice because 

it liberated the ci from the 

decades-long hegemony of trams, 

taxis andtristesse. The stations 

in Arnhem and Breda, with their 

radical integration of nctions 

on the other hand, do represent 

a break with previous decades 

of Dutch railway architecture. 

Rather than to Dutch examples, 

they refer to foreign stations such 

as EuraLille or Kyoto or, rther 

back in time, the labyrinthine 

Brussels Centraal. 

The station in Arnhem 

wasdesignedbyUNStudio.The 

ingenious construction of the 

fanning, spiralling column (the 

‘helix’, in the terms of architect 

Ben van Berkel) creates a large, 

open station hall in which all 

pedestrian traffic is led to and 

from the different transport pes 

via smooth slopes. The station 

hall is the spectacular result of


Netherlands 

061 

thesesolidifiedconductors.It’sa 

designprinciplethat’sbothweak 

andstrong.Strongbecausefrom 

thislocation,pedestrianscanstill 

logicallyoverseeallthetransit 

traffic and because the space feels 

like a festive and scintillating 

welcome. Weak, because there 

are always going to be changes 

in pedestrian flows over the 

years. And will these solidified 

conductors be flexible enough 

to adjust when that happens? 

the Breda design. Van Velsen 

chose a setup reminiscent of the 

glory days of British brutalism, 

more specifically of the recently 

demolished former Greyfriars bus 

station in Northampton. Just like 

Greyfriars, Breda station has been 

setuplikeabrickmonolithin 

which offices, a bus station, flyovers 

and shops are designed in a single 

coherent gesture. Like a brick shell, 

all nctions have been grouped 

around the tracks and the bus lanes: 

will be lying undeveloped there 

for years to come. Here, the 

traffic flows that elegantly and 

logically lead to architecture in 

Arnhem are used to construct 

a desired architectural look at 

the cost of accessibili, clari 

and environmental embedding. 

The raised bus station adjacent 

to the elevated track results in a 

substantial increase in the size of 

the half-sunken pedestrian tunnel 

that, unlike its counterpart in 

see the cars driving and the 

taxis waiting through ingenious 

viewing holes consisting of 

carelly placed windows, 

exploded-view façades, light 

catchers and voids, but how to 

physically reach them is harder to 

figure out. Though the station is 

largely finished already, the front 

won’t be completed until next 

summer. Hopelly, it will be a 

little easier to realize a connection 

to the ci from there. 

‘InthestationsinArnhem 

andBreda,offices and 

infrastructure are used to 

create height and décor’ 

The route to the car park, for 

instance, is very prominent now, 

but it’s likely that the relationship 

between train and car will weaken. 

And the ci bus station, which 

passengers hardly use, is situated 

in the most beautil location in 

frontofthestation,thuspushing 

the two main pedestrian routes to 

the ci centre aside. Nevertheless, 

thestationcompletedhereisa 

great place to spend time in for 

now and photographers will 

absolutely love it. 

OV Terminal Breda, a 

design by Koen van Velsen, is 

almost the exact opposite of that 

of Arnhem. Rather than flows, 

the spaces that had to be created 

formed the starting point for 

inthefront,intheback,beneaththe 

tracks and on top of the platform 

roof. In an incoming train, you 

therefore experience a closed indoor 

world that feels like a gloomy old 

tram depot, but with the imposing 

height of a nineteenth-century 

steam train station. 

The bus station was 

built at the raised level where 

the trains come in; the car 

park is located high above the 

tracks. This leads to rather a lot 

of infrastructural bombast in 

the form of lengthy ramps for 

buses and cars – it looks pretty, 

but was it really necessary? Not 

because of a lack of space in the 

immediate environment of the 

station – many, many hectares 

Rotterdam, isn’t clear and bright 

but forms a labyrinthine series of 

shopping arcades, bicycle tunnel 

and pedestrian connections. The 

way out – particularly in the 

temporary situation that will last 

until the summer of 2016 – isn’t 

easy to find. The building is like 

an ingenuous Japanese puzzle box 

and has you looking for a secret 

buttontogetyouout.It’sapublic 

transport terminal that seems to 

cry out that the station is in fact 

theci:Whywouldanyonestill 

want to visit the ci centre? 

This vision is confirmed 

once you’re out in the open air. 

While in Arnhem and Rotterdam, 

transit transport is found in 

logical places, in Breda you can 

The grand gesture to wrap Breda 

station in an all-encompassing 

layer of offices, dwellings, ramps 

and shops was undoubtedly the 

boldest choice made with regard 

to any Dutch station. Not only 

because of the architectural 

and logistical choices, but also 

because of the unmanageable 

connectiontotherestofthe 

ci and the ture plans in the 

railway zone. Time will tell 

whether it will become the next 

Greyfriars bus station – aptly 

nicknamed ‘the mouth of hell’ – 

or indeed the promised new piece 

of ci that the people of Breda 

will be as proud of as the people 

of Rotterdam and Arnhem are of 

their new stations today. _


Photo Siebe Swart

Team CS 

Rotterdam — Netherlands 

063 

Space 

and 

Skin 

BenthemCrouwel, 

Meyer&VanSchooten 

ArchitectenandWest8 

havegivenRotterdam 

an iconic ci gate. 

Text 

Piet Vollaard 

Photos 

Jannes Linders


If 

thequaliofarchitectureis 

judgedbytheenthusiasmwith 

whichurbanites,usersandthe 

mediaembraceanewbuilding, 

Rotterdam’s new Central Station 

is top architecture. But there 

was little of this enthusiasm 

noticeable when the decision was 

made to demolish the old station, 

designed by architect Sybold van 

Ravesteyn.Apopularstation,it 

symbolized–togetherwiththe 

adjacent Groothandelsgebouw 

and Lijnbaan – the reconstruction 

of Rotterdam after the 1940 

bombing that wiped away a large 

part of the ci centre. Spelling 

out the words ‘Centraal Station’, 

theneonsignontheroofwasa 

characteristic part of the building. 

As a final farewell to the station 

before its reconstruction began 

in 2007, industrial designer Peter 

Hopman rearranged some of 

thelettersintothemelancholy 

anagram ‘Traan laten’ (in tears) 

–atextthatadornedthefaçade 

during the last few months before 

the demolition. 

Apart from such 

sentiments, the need to renew 

the station was undisputed. 

The building, especially the 

passenger tunnel, was too small 

to accommodate the increased 

visitor flows that were expected 

to increase even rther after the 

introduction of the high-speed 

train. Its structural condition 

was poor, especially that of 

theplatformroofs.Andanew 

subway line to the north was to 

be created that was to link up 

with the underground station just 

in front of the façade. 

In 2001, Alsop 

Architects developed an initial, 

comprehensive master plan to 

transform the station, including 

a large part of the ci centre 

around it, into a commercial 

Central District. Though this 

planwasinmanywaysthe 

perfectanswertothequestion, 

Rotterdam’s political and 

economic climate changed to 

such an extent that the idea of 

a comprehensive master plan 

was cancelled and a tender was 

issued in 2003 for just a new 

station building. It was won by a 

combination of three Dutch firms 

–BenthemCrouwel,Meyer&Van 

Schooten Architecten and West 

8 – under the name Team CS. 

In response to the 

assignment to design a ‘sober 

and efficient’ station, Team CS 

disentangled the logistics of pes 

of passengers and public transport 

to bring them together in a simple 

main shape: a continuous roof 

over the intersection of the tracks 

and the passenger tunnel between 

both entrances. The roof continues 

onthesideofthecicentreand 

is folded into a station hall with 

a triangular section, with one of 

the corners stretching out over 

the Stationsplein to point in the 

direction of ci boulevard Weena. 

The idea that a station 

could also be a social space is 

not denied by this station, but 

it is subordinated to the rapid 

processing of passenger flows. 

Most of the shops have been 

placed on either side of the wide 

passenger tunnel, while the 

station hall has been kept as free 

of ‘developments’ as possible. 

In that respect, the station hall 

nctions as a covered urban 

square and as a part of the 

continuous urban space. 

While the old station 

kept the central part of the ci 

separated from the residential 

area in the north, the route 

through the station now forms an 

elongated north-south link that 

connects the two districts. This 

continuous pedestrian domain, 

whichrunsfromWestersingelon 

the ci-centre side to Spoorsingel 

in the north, has been almost 

entirely kept free of crossing 

traffic. Through car traffic on 

Weena is processed underground 

and connected to an underground 

parking garage. The connecting 

publictrafficflowsofbus,tram 

and taxi are located on either side 

of the station hall. 

Everyday,RotterdamCentralStationprocesses 

some110,000passengers.Expectationsarethat 

numberwillhaveincreasedto323,000in2025. 

The roof tip points them towards the ci centre.

Team CS 


065 

‘The people of Rotterdam don’t know 

the meaning of the term agoraphobia’ 

Thoughlogisticandspatial/urban 

planningcontinuideterminethe 

overallplanofthenewstationto 

alargeextent,itcannevertheless 

besaidtoexhibitanarchitectural 

dichotomythatreferstothe 

greatstationsofthenineteenth 

century.Theseclassicstations 

combinearepresentativestation 

buildingwithautilitarian,glass 

platformroof.Monumentali 

andexpressionversusneutrali 

andengineeringskills.Thisdivide 

isinkeepingwiththe different 

urban atmospheres on either side 

of the Rotterdam station: a quiet 

residential area with a nineteenth 

century canal to the north and the 

modern ci centre with high-rise 

buildings to the south. 

The roof over the 

platforms, made entirely of glass, 

folds down to create an elongated, 

neutral glass façade in the north. 

The space under the platform roof 

is open and light. The support 

structure comprises a system 

of wooden, secondary girders 

on steel main girders above the 

platforms. The main girders are 

supported by Y-shaped columns 

that, at right angles to the main 

direction, once again split into 

two sides over the platform 

staircases. To a certain degree, 

theY-shapeofthecolumnsrefers 

to the butterfly-shaped platform 

roofs of the old station. However, 

it’s also structurally sound, 

since it shortens the span of the 

main girders. The platform floor 

between the staircases is largely 

made of glass to provide the 

passenger tunnel with daylight. 

The neutral colours and 

materials and the constructive 

clari of the platform roof 

contrast sharply with the 

expressiveness of the roof over 

the station hall. The huge steel 

structure of the folded roof, 

necessary to keep the subway 

tubebelowfreeofcolumns,is 

coveredontheoutsidewitha 

skin of wrinkled stainless steel 

and with wood panelling on 

the inside. The roof-façade →

066 Mark 60 Perspective

Team CS 


067 

The ceiling in the main hall 

features 23,000 m 2 of Western 

Red Cedar wood panels.


Left The roof covering the platforms 

is made entirely of glass and folds 

down in the north to create a long, 

neutral, glass façade. 

Opposite The Y-shaped columns 

that support the main girders of 

the platform roof are split into two 

sidesatthebottomtomakeroom 

for the staircases and escalators. 

‘Thestationhall nctions 

as a covered urban square’ 

section in the east nctions as 

a huge main girder that rests 

onaconcretebasebelowthe 

projecting tip. The glass façade 

of the hall runs parallel to the 

tracks. The projecting roof section 

is above the outside entrance 

of the subway. Thus, the station 

square is covered by a triangular 

roof that leaves the façade of 

reconstruction monument 

Groothandelsgebouw visible, 

yet reaches to the Weena. The 

continui of indoor and outdoor 

space is rther emphasized by 

the identical stone paving used 

both in the station hall and on the 

station square. 

The two parts of the station 

differ the most with respect to 

the nature and quali of incident 

daylight.LeCorbusier’swellknown 

mottoL’architectureestle 

jeusavant,correctetmagnifiquedes 

volumesenlumière(architecture 

is the masterly, correct and 

magnificent interplay of masses 

broughttogetherinlight)is 

often quoted with regard to the 

role of light in architecture. But 

that role is in fact a subservient 

one, Le Corbusier was primarily 

concernedwiththeplayof 

volumesthatis‘broughttolight’ 

and only secondarily with the 

quali of the light itself. Perhaps 

the more or less uniform nature of 

the light in Mediterranean areas 

played a part in that. In a North- 

West European maritime climate 

like that of the Netherlands, on 

the other hand, the nature and 

intensi of the daylight vary. 

Inside Central Station, 

contrastingly, there certainly 

isn’tanyplayofvolumesgoing 

on,volumeisinasenseabsent: 

everything is space and skin. 

The light plays a dominant role 

here and it is the varied nature 

of the light itself that determines 

the experience of the different 

spatial atmospheres. Calling it 

a symphony in light is perhaps 

taking things a bit too far, yet 

I,afrequentuserofthestation, 

think it’s a real treat to be able to 

directly experience the various 

qualities of the light, dependent 

onthetimeofday,weather 

conditions and seasons. On a 

beautil day, passengers alight 

into the summer sun, gently 

softened by the cloud of solar 

cells in the glass roof over the 

platforms. Via the passenger 

tunnel, in which ample daylight 

falls through glass platform 

floors, they reach the relatively 

dark station hall through which 

fellow passengers move like 

contours, backlit by the large 

front window that looks out onto 

the ci. At night, this lightdark 

ratio between the hall and 

the platforms is the other way 

around. Then, suddenly, the hall 

is a warm and urban, artificially 

lit interior space whereas the 

glass façade is a dark surface with 

illuminated buildings. 

The roof of the station hall 

includes relatively small slights 

fitted with mirrors that were 

supposed to help create beams of 

sunlight, like in Grand Central 

Station in New York. Though 

the hall is dark enough for it, 

I’ve never seen any sunbeams 

there: it seems what’s missing 

is the sufficiently dus or moist 

atmosphere needed to create them. 

Nevertheless, the station is still 

very muchunjeusavant,correct 

etmagnifiquedulumiereenespace, 

to paraphrase Le Corbusier. 

Upon completion, 

the residents of Rotterdam 

immediately and enthusiastically 

began to use the new station. 

The large open space in front 

ofthestationwasembracedas 

pical of Rotterdam as well. Rem 

Koolhaas once called Rotterdam 

‘a wind tunnel experiment that 

people seem to take part in 

quite enthusiastically’. Indeed: 

the people of Rotterdam don’t 

know the meaning of the term 

‘agoraphobia’. A proposal to 

place a sculpture by artist Olar 

Eliasson on the station square 

was immediately criticized by the 

locals because it would infringe 

on the open space. 

Still, the sentiments 

surrounding the old station 

haven’t remained completely 

unanswered. One of the works 

of art that flanked the old station 

has been relocated to the first 

platform, above the bicycle tunnel 

in the western part of the station. 

In addition, the pattern of that 

work is used in the decoration of 

the interior façade of the station 

hall and in the pattern of the solar 

cells on the roof. The old, analogue 

clockthatonceadornedthefaçade 

was also put back up, as was the 

huge neon lettering which, on the 

façade, spells the name ‘Centraal 

Station’. The old name, that is: 

for as far as people in Rotterdam 

are concerned, there is only one 

central station. The official name, 

‘Rotterdam Centraal’, including 

thelogoofDutchrailway 

company NS, is only found on 

the northern façade. _ 

mvsa-architects.com 

benthemcrouwel.com 

west8.nl

Team CS 


069


Team CS 


071 

Theplatformroofis 

structurallyclear, 

withneutralcolours 

andmaterials.Light 

thatfallsthrough 

theglassroofis 

somewhatsoftened 

by solar cells.


Cross Section 

0 

12 

09 

10 

05 

13 

01 

10 

06 

10 





04 

11 





08 

07

Team CS 


073 

Long Section 

+1 

01 Stationhall 

02 Tickets 

03 Shops 

04 Passenger tunnel 

05 Trams 

06 Buses 

07 Taxis 

08 Bicycle parking (1,600 spaces) 

09 Entrance to bicycle cellar (5,200 spaces) 

10 Entrance to subway 

11 Bicycle tunnel 

12 Weena 

13 Groothandelsgebouw 

14 Platforms 

15 Waiting area 

15 

14 

14


Photo Siebe Swart

UNStudio 

Arnhem — Netherlands 

075 

The 

Twister 

UNStudio’s station in 

Arnhem is all about 

the spectacular ‘twist’ 

that ties together the 

pedestrian flows. 

Text 

JaapJan Ber 

Photos 

Hufton+Crow


The 

recentopeningoftrainandbus 

stationArnhemwasamilestone 

occasion.FortheciofArnhem, 

whichfinallygetstousealongawaitednewstationbuilding.For 

railmanagerProRailandDutch 

railwaycompanyNSintheir 

pursuitofthemodernizationof 

railtransport.Fortrainandbus 

passengers,whohadtomakedo 

withabuildingsiteforyears.And, 

lastbutnotleast,forUNStudio, 

theofficethatworkedonthe 

project for nearly two decades. 

For UNStudio, the project 

is connected to the early days 

of the practice. Just two weeks 

before the firm first began to 

work on this assignment, the 

Erasmus Bridge was opened 

in Rotterdam. Ben van Berkel: 

‘Oddly enough, the project in 

Arnhem marks the beginning of 

ourcareerinaway.Ourfirmis 

now 25 years old, and for 19 of 

those years the station has been 

an ongoing assignment.’ 

The project has gone 

through many stages since 1996, 

obstacleshavebeenovercomeand 

adjustments made. A long period, 

which might make one think that 

a somewhat outdated building 

has arisen in the provincial ci 

in Gelderland. But one look at the 

end result and every thought of 

outdatedness vanishes. In Arnhem, 

UNStudio has built a progressive 

transfer machine that intelligently 

allows urban densification and 

streamlines the various user flows 

and transport modes. 

Indeed, the long time span 

was a substantial factor behind 

this success. Since 1996, the design 

has gained quali, refinement 

and precision, making the station 

in Arnhem a more complete, 

improved building. It would have 

been impossible to realize the great 

ambitions in a shorter period. In 

other words, the concept for the 

station needed time to mature and 

was fortunately given that time. 

Additionally, the lengthy 

process helped achieve a 

refinement of concept and form as 

well as materialization. The double 

tenderandthestru≫lewithhigh 

construction costs also turned out 

to be blessings in disguise. When 

the tender of the transfer hall was 

delayed due to its complex shape, 

the construction process was 

divided in two, allowing earlier 

calls for tenders and fewer delays 

for the parts of the station that 

were easier to build. → 

Theoffice square on top of the station 

hall roof is accessible from the ci by 

wide stairs and a ramp.

UNStudio 


077 

Every day, Arnhem Centraal processes 

some 50,000 passengers. Expectations 

are that in 2025 that number will have 

increased to 110,000.


The ‘twist’ in the centre of the station hall 

opensupthespace,constitutesameeting 

point and helps people find their way.

UNStudio 


079


UNStudio 


081 

‘It’s a story about the 

ways people move around 

as comfortably and 

naturally as possible’ 

Top Though initially designed 

in concrete, the flowing ‘twist’ 

was eventually made of steel. 

Left Being able to see where 

you need to go at a glance is 

UNStudio’s promise to every 

traveller and visitor. 

Itwasn’tuntilafterthedecision 

wasmadetonotbuilda 

monolithicconcretestructure, 

buttousealightercombination 

ofglassandconcreteforpartof 

thetransferhallthatacontractor 

forthatpartcouldbefound. 

Choosingsteelfirstandforemost 

increasedmanufacturabili, 

butalsoaffected the end result 

in other ways. In the transfer 

hall, the tactile and aesthetic 

characteristics of steel certainly 

look their best. 

This course of events 

caused UNStudio to work from the 

outside in, rather than the other 

way around. ‘Rather than with the 

heart, we started with the elements 

around it,’ says Van Berkel. 

When UNStudio became 

involved in the commission nearly 

20 years ago, the initial challenge 

was to study and chart visitor 

flows in the entire ture station 

area. Van Berkel: ‘That study led to 

the idea to not simply create a new 

station,buttothinkintermsofa 

transfer location.’ 

After the division of 

the construction process, the 

firm worked on two parallel 

commissions. One involved the 

design for the north side of the 

station area, consisting of among 

other things the platform roofs 

with a traverse that allows direct 

access to the platforms from 

the north, a bicycle bridge and 

retaining walls to overcome the 

differences in height between the 

railway yard and the surrounding 

hills. Concurrent with this mainly 

infrastructural assignment, which 

was completed in 2011, UNStudio 

also continued to work on the 

master plan with transfer hall, 

platform tunnel, shopping spaces 

and two office towers. 

To Van Berkel, who prior 

to the commission in Arnhem 

hadn’t worked on a public 

transport node before, it wasn’t 

just a complex technical task but 

also a challenge to once more have 

adesignembracetheexcitement 

of travel. Van Berkel: ‘Using a new 

and vital impulse, we wanted to 

counterattack the recent design 

history of this pe of place, which 

was often characterized by a 

rather meagre nctionali.’ 

The station in Arnhem 

differs from the railway stations 

that are being completed more or 

less simultaneously elsewhere in 

the Netherlands. For rather than a 

space in which the movement of 

passengers and other users take 

place, the UNStudio design is that 

movement itself. The connection 

between form and nction is thus 

more direct than is the case in 

many other stations. →


From the beginning of the design 

process UNStudio therefore cared 

less about the autonomous form 

than about the organization of the 

building. Slistic or architectural 

references were of no importance 

at all. The architects looked for 

an architectural language and 

form that stems almost entirely 

fromthelogisticratherthanthe 

aesthetic domain. 

Van Berkel: ‘It’s a story 

about wayfinding and the 

ways people move around as 

comfortably and naturally as 

possible.’ This involves overseeing 

the situation, transparency, 

movement and orientation, with 

as littlesignageaspossible. 

The result of all of 

these design efforts is a station 

inwhichforms,flowsand 

structures come together like 

a whirlwind. The building 

is a continuous landscape of 

movements. Gently sloping 

floors provide access to the bus 

stations, underground car parks 

and platform tunnel from the 

transfer hall, without any sudden 

differences in level. The architects 

developed the complicated 

geometry necessary to realize 

this in collaboration with Arup. 

The V-walls used are 

one example: walls placed at an 

angle across multiple levels so 

that different spaces are literally 

created that are rthermore 

free of columns. The walls 

are particularly visible in the 

underground car park. 

Another example is the 

use of the geometry of the Klein 

bottle,amathematicalfigure 

withoutanyclearinsideor 

outside.Propertiesofthisfigure 

arevisibleinthetransferhall:a 

turnedsupportstructuregraces 

themiddle,thetwist.Atthe 

bottom,ittwistsdownwardsto 

thedeeper-lyingtrolleybusstops 

andundergroundbicycleparking 

facili.Upwards,itcreatesalazy 

staircasethattogetherwithtwo 

escalatorsprovidesaccesstoa 

rooftop street from which the 

office towers can be reached. The 

twist, made of a combination of 

concrete and steel, nctions as a 

kind of knot; a both structural and 

visual object that in its solidified 

dynamic can be considered as a 

symbol for the entire plan. 

Central to the design is the 

smooth accompaniment of traffic 

flows to different levels, enhanced 

by the use of rounded corners 

and oval or round windows. The 

natural differences in height 

at the location are a significant 

factor, but the task to achieve 

a densification of the urban 

programme was more important. 

Now that the building is 

completed, it will be interesting 

to monitor the effect of the 

station, especially at the level 

oftheci.Arnhemissituated 

on the slope of a lateral 

moraine along the Nederrijn 

River and the station is located 

amid the Arcadian greenery 

of Park Sonsbeek and the 

still underdeveloped but very 

promising river banks. The 

completion of the station is a 

catalyst for rther development 

of the inner ci. But whether that 

impulse will have real impact 

depends on timing, money and 

political willpower. What is 

certain is that UNStudio’s new 

transfer hall and a compact 

urban programme have provided 

thecentreofArnhemwitha 

‘sublimated piece of ci’ that 

appears strong and distinctive 

enough to continue to transform 

its urban surroundings. _ 

unstudio.com 

LeftThetunneltotheplatforms 

andtheplatformroofswerepart 

ofthefirstphaseoftheproject, 

whichwascompletedin2011. 

RightThedifferencesinheight 

inthesurroundinglandscape 

areincorporatedintothedesign 

andledtoastationhallinwhich 

thingshappenatmanylevels.At 

theverybottom is the entrance 

to the car park.

UNStudio 


083


0 

06 

01 

05 


01 Station hall 

02 Localbusses 

03 Undergroundparkinggarage 

04 Bicycleparkingfacili 

05 Tunneltotrainplatforms 

06 Regionalbusses 

07 Platforms 

08 Elevatedofficesquare 

09 Officetower 

10 Offices 

11 Office tower (ture development) 

-1 


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UNStudio 


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+ 1 

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Long section 

‘Therecentdesignhistoryoftrain 

stationswas often characterized 

by a rather meagre nctionali’


Photo NINE The Netherlands

Koen van Velsen 

Breda — Netherlands 

087 

ASingle 

Grand 

Gesture 

Although the station is already largely 

completed and in use, the southern section 

will not be finished until the autumn of 2016. 

Photo NINE The Netherlands 

In Breda, Koen van Velsen 

realizes a station that wants 

to be part of the ci. 

Text 

JaapJan Ber 

Photos 

René de Wit


Koen 

vanVelsenhasbecomean 

expertinthefieldofrailway 

architecture,andnotjustbecause 

hebuiltthestationinBreda.He 

starteddesigningthebuilding 

in2005, but between 2009 and 

2015, he also held the position of 

National Railway Architect – his 

task was to develop and manage 

the so-called ‘railway plan’ of 

Dutch railway company NS. This 

includes all design related to 

user experience of the railway, 

including that of stations. His 

work in Breda thus coincided for 

a large part with his position as 

National Railway Architect. So it’s 

not surprising that the station, the 

first he ever designed, has great 

significance to his views on the 

railway plan. 

Van Velsen’s main focus is 

on the role stations play in the ci. 

The latest generation of stations 

in Dutch cities are no longer 

mononctional buildings in 

which trains and buses arrive and 

depart. They accommodate many 

other nctions besides public 

transport. The goal is to create a 

location with a densi that is as 

high as possible, conceived in the 

spirit of the compact ci, in which 

all transport flows converge. 

This ambition is recognizable in 

Van Velsen’s design for Breda. It 

is obviously a station, a public 

transport hub, but it’s also a 

building that wants to contribute 

tothertherdevelopmentofthe 

ci. And though the building will 

not be finished until the autumn 

of 2016, many of the intentions are 

already visible, with two thirds of 

it completed and in use. 

Like the recently realized 

stations in Rotterdam and 

Arnhem, the station in Breda is 

one of six national key projects 

that are currently being built 

in the Netherlands. In the late 

1990s, these projects were set 

up thanks to extra budget made 

available by the then Ministry 

of Housing, Spatial Planning 

and the Environment to ensure 

good, urban integration of public 

transport hubs. Now that they 

are lly or nearly completed, it 

is clear that the former ministry 

has succeeded in its mission to 

carelly connect the stations 

with the existing inner cities, 

something that was hardly a 

priori for previous generations 

of major stations. 

Since the 1990s, views 

about what a station can or must 

be have changed dramatically. 

The station in Breda is a good 

example. In addition to a train and 

bus station, the building houses 

attended and unattended bicycle 

parking facilities on either side of 

the tracks, 147 apartments divided 

over four volumes, shops, offices, 

cafés and restaurants, a rooftop 

car park and public outdoor 

spaces. The spatial focus is on two 

intersecting axes: the high-speed 

line between Amsterdam and 

Brussels/Paris and the connection 

between the inner ci and the 

Belcrum neighbourhood on the 

othersideofthetracks.Thelatter 

axis has taken the form of a new, 

public pedestrian and bicycle 

tunnel, centrally situated in the 

new building and up to 36 m wide. 

VanVelsenwantedthe 

building to be for and of the 

ci, attractive to travellers, and 

to radiate comfort. He wanted 

to unite all of the nctions in a 

single grand gesture that extends 

over the tracks. To highlight 

the inevitable and self-evident 

character of that gesture, he chose 

brick as a cladding material. In 

his opinion, only brick could 

unambiguously connect the 

existing part of the ci with the 

ones that had yet to be developed. 

To prevent massiveness, Van 

Velsen has incorporated patterns 

that refer to all previous stages 

of the design into the brickwork 

besides windows and other →



089 

The patterns in the brickwork 

dematerialize the façade.




091 

Between the bus and train station, 

ramps lead to the car park on top of 

the station building.


openings. They dematerialize the 

façade and provide lightness; 

the fascinating play of surfaces 

is on occasion reminiscent of 

architectural pictograms. The atria 

oftheofficesandthecourardsof 

the apartments allow daylight to 

penetrate deep into the building. 

Both the train and the 

busstationarehousedina 

single, large station hall, so no 

additional platform roofs are 

needed. Besides the monumental 

character, the height and the 

scale of the central space are 

particularly eye-catching. This 

sensation is rther enhanced 

bytheentrancetotherooftop 

carparkthatascendsacrossthis 

hallatanangle:twoslanting 

rampsformstrikingelementsin 

theotherwiseorthogonalspace. 

The car park, which also forms 

theroofoverthetracks,isthe 

first ever built in such a location 

in the Netherlands. To Van 

Velsen,thatchoiceismorethan 

a gimmick: it’s a confirmation of 

his view that the building forms 

a hub of nctions. Drivers are 

not‘condemned’toaninvisible, 

underground car park, but drive 

through the station hall to park 

above the tracks. 

Similarly, and as 

emphatically as intractably, the 

architect has also made out a case 

for a number of other parts of the 

design. The intervention in the 

course of the road that runs past 

the station to the north is a good 

example. From the beginning, Van 

Velsen proposed (successlly) 

to create a slight curve in this 

initially straight road near the 

station. To passers-by, the result 

is an almost scenographic and 

gradual unveiling of the building. 

The slightly undulating façade 

accompanies the trafficina 

naturalwayandlookshollow 

atcertainpoints,forinstance 

aroundtheentrancesandatthe 

courards around the apartments. 

The architect was also involved in 

the design of the public space on 

this side of the station. 

Similarly, but on a 

completely different level, Van 

Velsen has asserted his ideas 

with respect to the station hall 

interior, the pedestrian and 

bicycle tunnel and the shopping 

area. Here, the architect opted for 

a luxuriant look by using stone 

floors and walls in combination 

with wood and mirroring 

ceilings. These materials not only 

ensure the comfort of the indoor 

spaces, they also contribute to 

the scenographic intentions 

of the architect. Visitors are 

presented with surprising 

views, unexpected passages and 

reflections of other users. This 

experience is rther enhanced by 

the unusual way daylight enters 

through windows and atriums. 

VanVelsentreatsthestationasa 

theatre and its users as actors. 

During a recent seminar 

of the Royal Institute of Dutch 

Architects Miguel Loos, advisor for 

the officesoftheNationalRailway 

Architect,calledthestationin 

Bredaanexampleofa‘forward 

leapingstation’:astationthathas 

beendemolishedandreplacedin 

itsentire once or several times. 

This approach allows the recurrent 

building of a station that is equal 

to the task at hand. The alternative 

is a so-called ‘developing station’, 

which requires the rther 

development of existing, sometimes 

monumental buildings. Amsterdam 

Centraal and Den Haag Centraal, 

which have been extended by 

BenthemCrouwel,bothbelong 

to the second category. 

Van Velsen has managed 

to avoid one temptation of the 

‘forward leaping station’-pe. And 

that is: to design a modern, but 

relatively generic building that, 

like a UFO, could have landed 

anywhere, a building that owes 

its character mainly to its own 

moderni. Van Velsen’s design 

for Breda represents exactly the 

opposite:llofcharacterindeed, 

designed on the basis of a strong 

idea, but also closely interwoven 

with the surrounding buildings. 

Modest as well, because the aim 

is to integrate the station into the 

new development yet to be built 

in the north. It’s a fairly solitary 

building today, but according 

to the architect, it will merge 

with the ci over time. After 

that, what’s left is a serviceable, 

balanced and appealing building 

as well as an intractable and 

unique station of a quali that 

until recently was not self-evident 

in this pe of building. _ 

koenvanvelsen.com



093 

Left Crowning the station building is 

a car park for 750 cars. 

Right The pedestrian tunnel is finished 

with floors and walls of stone. Every day, 

30,000 passengers use the station. It is 

expected that by 2025, that number will 

have increased to 57,000. 

Below Slights, openings and atriums 

provide both surprising perspectives 

and a varied incidence of light. 

‘Van Velsen treats the station as 

a theatre and its users as actors’




095 

In addition to a train and bus station, 

the building also houses shops, offices 

and 147 apartments.


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04 


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06 

01 Entrance 

02 Publicsquare 

03 Stationhall 

04 Shops,cafésandrestaurants 

05 Pedestriantunnel 

06 Bicycleparking 

07 Patio 

08 Housing 

09 Offices 

10 Trainplatform 

11 Busplatform 

12 Ramp to the car park 

13 Car park 

Cross Section



097 

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Long Section


JanBenthem. 

Photo Anneke Hymmen

Benthem Crouwel Architects 


099 

‘It’s 

better to 

take an 

imperfect 

decision 

than to 

decide 

nothing 

at all’ 

BenthemCrouwelworkedonfourofthe 

six major new stations in the Netherlands. 

Text 

Piet Vollaard


Benthem 

CrouwelArchitectsisone 

ofthelargerdesignfirmsin 

theNetherlands.Sinceitwas 

establishedin1979,theoffice has 

been designing in a technical/ 

nctionalist tradition. Among 

its many assignments, large and 

small, cultural and infrastructural 

buildings predominate. Among the 

formerpe,themostrenownedis 

the extension to Stedelijk Museum 

Amsterdam that was completed 

a few years ago. The series of 

infrastructural projects started 

with several customs buildings 

in the 1980s and a succession of 

alterations to Schiphol Airport, 

whichcontinuetothisday. 

Benthem Crouwel has also 

worked on four of the six major 

stationsthatweretransformed 

and adapted in the 2000s to 

serve increased passenger traffic. 

We spoke with co-founder Jan 

Benthem about working on such 

complex commissions. 

Let’s start by asking which 

stationshaveinspiredyou.In 

which tradition would you want 

to classi those stations? 

JAN BENTHEM: The classic 19 th - 

century stations are imprinted in 

my memory – stations where you 

feel you’re arriving somewhere 

asyourideintothem.Forme 

personally–Iwasbornin 

Amsterdam – the large canopy of 

the Central Station in Amsterdam 

wassuchaspot.Thatsamesense 

of arrival is present in all our 

stations: a single large space. Our 

stations are not so much buildings, 

but more like covered ci plazas. 

You’ve worked on a series of 

stations. How did that succession 

of commissions come about? 

As a bureau we’ve long been 

involved with various extensions 

to Schiphol Airport and we also 

designed the railway station there. 

In Amsterdam we worked on 

the seven stations for the metro’s 

North/South Line, including 

theoneatCentralStation.The 

discussions about the placement 

of that metro station soon turned 

to the connections with other 

modesofpublictransport.Oneof 

thepointsofdiscussionwasthe 

placement of the bus station. We 

then proposed situating the bus 

station directly behind the station 

on the IJ waterfront, aligned with 

the railway platforms, rather than 

next to the station, which was 

the original plan. A succession of 

sub-assignments eventually led to 

a master plan commission for the 

whole station. 

A few years later we were 

asked to share our thoughts about 

the adaptations to the central 

stationsinTheHagueandin 

Utrecht. In both instances we 

were called in after extended 

discussions and consideration, 

which had resulted in earlier 

plans being rejected. In fact that 

situation repeated itself once 

more in Rotterdam: there, too, 

the process had ground to a halt 

after the abandonment of the 

Central District master plan by 

Alsop Architects. When the call 

for tenders in Rotterdam was 

issued it seemed inconceivable to 

us that we would be allowed to 

undertake yet another station of 

such size and importance, as we 

were working on all the major 

stations in the Randstad. We 

decided to submit a tender with 

a team of three firms, which we 

gave its own name right from 

the start: Team CS. The brief 

called for a ‘sober and efficient’ 

station. Based on our experience 

with earlier stations, we said we 

could create a sober and efficient 

building that would still be 

representative, if we were allowed 

to reassign the separate budgets 

of the two commissioning parties, 

ci and railway, which were 

designated for the station hall and 

theplatformarearespectively. 

So we also had a fairly detailed 

budget ready to accompany the 

proposal. We weren’t allowed to 

submit it at that point, but we 

had it ready. Three weeks later,



101 

In Amsterdam, Benthem Crouwel designed 

the new bus station by adding a fourth 

glazed canopy on the waterfront directly 

behind the railway station in the tradition 

of its three existing canopies. 

Photo Jannes Linders 

whenwereceivedarequestfor 

a rther elaboration in the form 

of a budget, we were able to 

submit it the following day. 

How did the cooperation 

between the architects on the 

team work out? 

At Schiphol, where we’ve already 

done lots of work, it’s impossible 

to do things on your own. So we’re 

used to cooperation and enjoy it, 

too. In Rotterdam cooperation was 

a strategy to win the contract. 

Once that succeeded we were 

already having so much n with 

the project that it rolled onward 

without a second thought. For 

Rotterdam it was a true collective. 

Weputtogethertwoyoung 

designers without too much 

previous history from each firm 

and set them the task of working 

as a single new bureau. We also 

decided not to chop the design 

into subsections, by for example 

dictating that West8aslandscape 

architectcouldn’thaveanything 

todowiththestairs.West8’s 

AdriaanGeuzeactuallyhad 

plenofinputwithregardtothe 

station’scanopyanddetailing,and 

viceversa.Thankstothiswayof 

workingithastrulyturnedoutto 

beabetter station than any of us 

could have achieved separately. 

For all these stations you were 

dealing with many different 

commissioning parties. What is 

the impact of having to operate 

within such an a≫regate of 

parties, which are perhaps not 

necessarily cooperating? 

We not only had to deal with many 

parties for each major station, but 

there was also a mutual rivalry 

between them. At the time, soon 

after the privatization of the →

102 Mark 60 Perspective



103 

BenthemCrouweldesigned 

TheHague’srenovated 

CentralStation.Trains 

andtramscrosseach 

other’spathsatdifferent 

levelsunderneaththevast 

22-m-highglazedroof. 

Photo Jannes Linders 

‘Our stations are not so 

much buildings, but more 

like covered ci plazas’ 

railways, it was emphatically 

stated that each of the privatized 

railway units (infrastructure, 

stations and passenger transport) 

was responsible for itself and 

should above all no longer concern 

themselves with those other 

aspects. So there were parties 

around the table who were used 

to doing everything together, but 

they had now been instructednot 

to cooperate and to stand up for 

theirowninterestsexclusively. 

Furthermore, the ci councils had 

a sort of love/hate relationship 

with the railways, because in 

the past they could more or less 

operateastheysawfit.Railway 

lines and stations were situated 

whereNS–DutchRailways– 

wanted them, and they were 

designed and realized by NS itself. 

So now that the ci councils had 

at long last something to say about 

those stations, they weren’t going 

to squander the opportuni. 

Moreover,inRotterdam 

thestationhadtobeputto 

tenderinsections. The Municipal 

Department of Public Works built 

the underground metro station and 

also wanted to build the section 

of the station hall and concourse 

that was financed by the Ci 

of Rotterdam,whiletherailway 

waslaidbyaProRailcontractor. 

The boundary between ci and 

railways continues through the 

roof as well, so one section of its 

steel frame was produced by one 

contractor, the other section by 

another: they’re welded together 

halfway. You can no longer see 

it, but that boundary very much 

continues across that roof. 

In relation to the complex 

commissioning and realization 

situation in Rotterdam,Ionce 

heardyousaythatthiswas 

actuallyanadvantageforyou 

asadesignteam.Inasituation 

wherenobodyisabletoor 

allowedtodecide,anindependent 

parlikethedesignersuddenly 

hasdecision-makingpossibilities. 

Sodidthecomplexigive 

youinformaldecision-making 

powers? 

Generallyspeaking,withthe 

majorstationstherewasalack 

ofconcertedmanagementor 

controllingoversight.Duringthe 

privatizationoftherailwaysand 

intheformulationofthebrieffor 

themajorstations,theyomitted 

todeviseaclear-cutdecisionmakingstructureforthesetasks. 

Butintheendthepartieshaveto 

workitouttogether.Toalarge 

extentthatsituationcausedthe 

failureoftheearlierplans.Or 

actuallynotsomuchthefailure, 

butchieflynotgettingaroundto 

makingdecisions. 

Asdesignerswewereable 

totakeadvantageofthatlacuna 

inthedecision-makinghierarchy. 

The more complex the situation, 

the greater the input you have 

asamoreorlessindependent, 

‘non-suspect’ par. By standing 

above, or rather between, these 

parties put us in a much better 

positiontoweighupand satis 

the various interests. 

The original intention was that 

the major stations would not 

simply nction as transport 

hubs, but that an integration of 

urban nctions such as living 

and working would be pursued. 

Has that ambition faded over 

the years? 

That integration has to a large 

extent been the cause of the 

prior history of plans grinding 

to a halt: Utrecht’s Ci Centre 

Plan, Amsterdam Waterfront, 

RotterdamCentralDistrict, 

HoogHagein The Hague – all 

these plans were characterized 

by an intermeshing of various 

nctions and as a consequence 

by an intertwining of the 

decision-making. The position of 

the various parties involved in 

theprocesswasthattheyeach 

wanted to make decisions about 

their own nctional component. 

With the railways, this had been 

the explicit instruction since 

privatization. So all these parties 

assessed the plans on the basis of 

nothing but their own interests, 

ambitions and guiding principles. 

That amounts to much more than 

is feasible there, so compromises 

have to be reached. But if you 

are only allowed to think about 

yourownsection,thenitis 

almost impossible to reach such 

compromises. In the end you 

are left with nobody making a 

decision, so nothing happens. 

If the various nctions in 

a scheme are spatially stacked as 

well, then things become really 

tric.InUtrechtthatwasthe 

caseintheextreme. There was a 

pre-existing plan to have the trams 

arrive beneath the station, with 

the railway station above it, a bus 

station above that, the taxis above 

that, and then offices on top of that 

as well. Everything was stacked, 

but this meant the decisionmaking 

for each individual 

component was dependent on 

decisions for all those other 

components. That proved to be 

utterlyimpossible,achaos. 

Forthosestationswe 

searchedforastructureby 

whichtheinterdependenceof 

thevariousstakeholdersandthe 

independenceofsimultaneous 

decisionswaskepttoaminimum. 

InUtrechtweliterallysetthose 

different nctions alongside each 

other, for which there was more 

than sufficient space, instead of 

stacking them. This restarted the 

decision-making process. It would 

be possible, if necessary, to add 

office spaces above later on. And 

that’s also how it went. 

In addition, with our 

experience at Schiphol we’ve 

learnt that it’s bettertotake 

animperfectdecisionthanto 

decidenothingatall,because 

thennothinghappenseither.We 

knowfromexperiencethatlater 

onthere’llbeanopportunito 

remedythatmistake.Sojustlet 

theprocessheadinthewrong 

directionforawhileandkeep 

yourwitsaboutyou,becausethere 

willalwaysbeamomentwhen 

youcanassertcontrolagain. This 

means that the end product is less 

predictable, but at least there’s a 

guarantee that there’ll be one. _ 

benthemcrouwel.com


Long 

Section

Long Section 

105 

‘The histor 

of 

desi n 

contests 

shows that 

less 

than half 

of the 

MalcolmReading on organizing 

architecture competitions, page 142 

ro ects 

ever 

et built’

106 Mark 60 Long Section 

Craftinga

GilBartolomé Architects 

Salobreña — Spain 

107 

Curvaceous Cave 

GilBartoloméArchitectsusedlocalcraftsmanship to 

connect a villa to both the mountains and the sea. 

Text 

Alexandra Onderwater 

Photos 

Jesús Granada


The dwelling has for the most part been dug 

into the mountain and the roof therefore 

follows the line of the mountainside. 

With 

theSierraNevadaasabackdropandthe 

MediterraneanSeain ll view, the Spanish 

Costa Tropical near Granada seems like 

an ideal operating base for busy urbanites 

that would give anything for some nature, 

tranquilli and reflection. It’s therefore not 

surprising that a young couple from Madrid 

decided to acquire a piece of land with an 

ocean view here a few years ago. Minor 

detail: the plot is located on a sharp incline. 

A42degreeincline,tobeprecise. The closed 

competition to which four architects were 

invited was won by GilBartolomé Architects 

with an unconventional design – 

to put it mildly. 

Casa del Acantilado, which literally 

translated means ‘House on a Cliff’, is not just 

spectacular because of its radical location. 

True, building on top of a cliff has its structural 

challenges, but this pe of curvaceous 

landscape is quite common in large parts 

of Spain and there are therefore numerous 

examples of Spanish houses built against or 

on top of mountainsides – the best known 

are probably theCasasColgadas or ‘suspended 

dwellings’ in the ci of Cuenca east of Madrid. 

However, Pablo Gil and Jaime Bartolomé 

have taken the extreme environment as their 

starting point and actually incorporated it into 

their design. ‘We wanted to integrate the house 

into the magnificent landscape that surrounds 

it and do so in a cost-effective way,’ recounts 

Bartolomé. Like a cave, a large part of the villa 

is locatedinside the mountain. To achieve this, 

the architects abandoned standard construction 

techniques and handled the building process 

in a way unlike anything customary in Spain. 

And their method may well be the most 

unconventional aspect of the project. 

It sounds paradoxical, but the 

approach the architects decided on is 

innovative especially because they chose to 

use craftsmanship rather than cheap, prefab 

materials. ‘We consciously opted to use honest, 

manual labour, using skill hands rather than 

machines,’ says Gil. He explains that though 

the studio works with digital designs, these 

are executed by experienced hands whenever 

possible. ‘Reverting to manual work rather 

than implementing prefabricated systems 

and industrial, semi-manufactured products 

may sound expensive, but the opposite is 

actually true. In fact, the overall costs would 

have been higher had we taken the usual, 

“industrialized” path. Obviously, the social and 

psychological value is much higher as well. Our 

approach allows a somewhat neglected group 

of extremely skilled workers to regain some 

digni and respect,’ says Bartolomé, who adds: 

‘Unfortunately, industrialization is still very 

prevalent in Spanish architecture.’ 

The most striking example of this 

approach is the eye-catching roof, produced 

using a handcrafted formwork system made →



109 

The roof is constructed from a curved, 

single-span reinforced concrete slab.

110 Mark 60 Long Section



111 

The undulating roof is covered with 

zinc shingles and looks as if it’s been 

slit open to make room for the large 

windows on both floors of the house.


The spacious living room opens onto the 

projecting terrace with pool. 

ofdeformablemetalmeshasopposedtousing 

themuchmorecommonformworkinwoodor 

steel.Theroofhassubsequentlybeencovered 

withzincshinglesthatwerealsoproducedby 

hand.Thissolutionprovedbeneficialtonot 

onlythemanyunemployedmanualworkersin 

Spainandtheconstructionbudget,butalsoto 

theappearanceofthehouse.‘Seenfrombelow, 

theroofisacontinuationofthenaturalslope, 

albeitwithacontrastingmateriali,whereas 

fromabovethezincshinglesseemtomimic 

thecolourandspumeoftheoceanwaves,’ 

explainsBartolomé. 

Thevillaisalmostcompletelydugfrom 

themountainsidebutitsdesignnevertheless 

providesalllivingspaceswithanoceanview. 

Thegroundfloorincludesaspaciousliving 

roomthatopensontoaprojectingterracewith 

asmallpool.Allotherspacesonthefloorabove 

alsooverlooktheocean.Thestudionotonly 

designedtheexterior,butalsotheinteriorand 

the rnishings, ‘to flow with the rest of the 

house’. Like, for instance, its roof construction, 

all these elements are based on digital designs 

yet completely handmade. 

Thehouseprovesthatthequaliofarchitecture 

improveswhencreativi,commitmentand 

craftsmanship have free rein, says Gil. But 

realizing the project was no picnic. ‘Technically, 

it was rather challenging. Also, you have to 

keep in mind that in Spain, architects take ll 

responsibili for the safe of a building, not 

engineers.’ The actual building took around 

18 months: retaining walls had to be sunk 

deep in the mountain, which took a lot of time, 

and stabilizing the terrain alone took nearly 

four months. An advantage of building into 

a mountain is that in this part of the world, 

direct contact with the earth guarantees a 

constant interior temperature of 20° C. The 

Granada cave dwellings are a well-known 

example of this tradition. ‘We obviously 

had to think of solutions to avoid dampness 

and humidi,’ Gil continues. ‘A buffer zone 

between the interior of the house and the 

retaining walls allows the air to circulate.’ 

The studio focuses on public buildings 

and experimental work in addition to 

residential projects. ‘For the past three years, 

we’ve very much gotten into robotics, studying 

phenomena like interaction, the nction and 

use of mobile devices in architecture and 

dynamic systems that interact with the users,’ 

Gil explains. Prior to starting his own studio in 

2007, Gil worked with, among others, Richard 

Rogers and David Chipperfield, whereas 

Bartolomé gained experience at Zaha Hadid 

and Cero9 Amid Architects in Madrid. Besides 

running the studio, they are both associated 

with universities as well. ‘It allows us to set 

up research projects and continue to innovate,’ 

says Bartolomé. 

Gilgoesontosay:‘We’veshownthatby 

using manual labour, the house can be seen as a 

social statement.’ Now they’re just waiting for a 

large public commission to test their approach 

under different circumstances. They already 

have a challenge in mind: ‘We’ve thought 

of many tricks to use to build an airport 

terminal in some sort of similar manner, using 

craftsmanship to produce digitally designed 

plans, and we think it could work.’ _ 

gilbartolome.com



113 

The ground floor was designed as an auditorium 

and can in fact be used that way as well. 

‘We consciously opted to use skill 

hands rather than machines’


From above, the zinc shingles seem to 

mimic the waves of the ocean, which 

all rooms of the dwelling overlook. 

Long Section



115 

0 

01 Kitchen 

02 Diningtable 

03 Storagespace 

04 Bathroom 

05 Sittingarea 

06 Swimming pool 

07 Terrace 

05 

04 



05 

01 

06 

07 

Cross Section 

‘Working at 

a universi 

allows us to 

continue to 

explore and 

innovate’


Enjoy 

the 

View

KWK Promes — Robert Konieczny 

Brenna — Poland 

117 

KWK Promes takes the weekend 

house to an upper level. 

Text 

Michał Haduch and Bartosz Haduch 

Photos 

Olo Studio


The risk of landslides on the steep slope caused 

Robert Konieczny to treat the house as a bridge, 

under which rainwater can flow naturally. 

KWK 

PromesisoneofPoland’smostrenowned 

architectureoffices.Althoughthepractice 

headedbyRobertKoniecznydesignsprojects 

ondifferentscales,itisprobablybestknown 

foritsconceptualsingle-familyhouses,built 

mainlyforthehigh-endresidentialmarket.The 

firm’sexperimentalbuildingsaresometimes 

controversialresponsestosuburbanmonotony, 

oftencharacterizedbyaneasilyrecognizable 

leitmotif:areversedpatiointheAatrialHouse 

(Mark 8, page 158), the unparalleled securi of 

the Safe House (Mark 20, page 88) or, in the case 

of the Auto-Family House (Mark 42, page 92), a 

driveway as a ll-fledged part of the nctional 

programme. 

Konieczny is strongly attached to 

Upper Silesia, the province in southern Poland 

where he was born and an area heavily



119 

transformedovertimebyindustry,primarily 

miningandmetalworking.Improvingthebuilt 

environmentinthisregionwasonereasonwhy 

Konieczny,notyet20yearsold,madeuphis 

mindtobecomeanarchitect.Attheageof30 

hefoundedhisownoffice,currentlylocatedin 

Katowice,thecapitalofUpperSilesia.Itwould 

beanothertenyearsbeforehefeltreadyto 

applyhisideastoapersonalproject:aholiday 

houseforhisfamily. 

Brennaisasmallvillageatthesouthern 

tipofPoland,only10kmfromtheCzech 

border.Anidealplacetoescapefromthebustle 

ofthebigci, Brenna is a mere one-hour drive 

from the centre of Katowice. Konieczny has a 

soft spot for the village, perhaps because of its 

Italianate name – a link to his family’s origins 

– or because of good memories from numerous 

camping trips that he made to the area as a 

youngster. At the heart of the picturesque 

Beskid Mountains, Brenna is a perfect spot for 

practising winter sports, including skiing, one 

of the architect’s favourite activities. 

While searching for the right site, 

Konieczny came across a1,700-m 2 pieceof 

land:anovergrownmeadowonthesteep 

northernslopeofRównicaMountain.Its 

highlightwasastunningpanoramicview 

ofthesurroundingsylvanscenery.Notone 

tohesitate,Koniecznyboughttheplotinthe 

summerof2009.Inordertopreservethe 

virgincharacterofthesite,heneitherbuilt 

afencealongtheperimeteroftheproper 

nor incorporated a garden into his concept. It 

would take him two years to design his dream 

house: an archepal form with a base made 

ofstoneandapitchedshingleroofinspiredby 

local building tradition. 

Construction – all set to begin in May 

2011–wasdelayedbytheoccurrenceofseveral 

majorlandslidesinPoland.WhenKonieczny 

sawtheproblemsfacedbytheexcavatoron 

theveryfirstdayofconstruction,hesuddenly 

feltthathisdesignwasnotwhathewanted 

after all. He didn’t like the idea of ‘fighting with 

nature’. The architect asked his building team 

to stop di≫ing and to give him a weekend to 

rethink the project. Three days and nights of 

exhausting work resulted in a wholly new 

concept, but Konieczny needed another four 

years to make his fresh vision a reali. 

The recently completed one-storey villa, 

based on a simple rectangular plan, is made 

almost entirely out of concrete. It features →


Following local regulations that prescribe a 

gable roof, Konieczny designed a house that 

resembles a barn. 

Photo Jakub Certowicz 

‘Building a house for his own family is a 

animpressive21-m-wideopeningcomposed 

ofsevengenerouslyglazedpanelsthatcreate 

apreciseframeworkforthespectacularsights 

visiblefrommostofitsrooms.Thehouse 

twistsslightly‘offtheslope’,makingpartof 

thevolume(comprisingbedrooms)higher– 

itrestsonthreethinwalls–thusgivingthe 

familyagreatersenseofsecuri. The design is 

more reminiscent of bridge construction than 

of residential projects. Konieczny’s solution 

allows water to flow freely under the building, 

significantly reducing the risk of landslides. 

The house has a pitched roof in compliance 

with local building regulations, but is devoid 

of pical eaves and equipped with a 

waterproof membrane adapted to the harsh 

highland climate. The chalet has a ‘second, 

inverted roof’: a seemingly levitating, slanting 

base that helps stabilize the construction 

and, when illuminated after dark, effectively 

discourages potential intruders. Safe 

measures are augmented by movable steel 

walls (on the southern and eastern façades) 

and an entrance in the form of a drawbridge 

that encloses the rear part of the house when 

theownersarenotathome. 

The 140-m 2 residence has a rather 

conventional layout. The night zone – three 

bedrooms (for parents and two children), a WC, 

a bathroom and a technical room – occupies 

the overhanging section of the house, which 

faces west. A large centrally positioned day 

zone accommodates the kitchen and areas for 

living, dining and leisure. It opens to views on 

two sides of the building, filling the interior 

with ample natural light. Complementing the 

nctional programme are spacious terraces 

with retractable glazed panels that lend access 

to the house, where simple, mostly purposedesigned 

rniture is juxtaposed with several 

design classics. Storage space is in the base of 

the building. Among Konieczny’s nonstandard 

choices are thermal insulation made of 

polyurethane foam (a fragment of which, 

recalling a salt cavern, appears in the WC) and 

a protopal fireplace. 

Building a house for his own family is a 

challenge for any architect. What makes 

it so difficult – and so different from other 

commissions – is having to deal with a very 

knowledgeable, experienced and demanding 

client. Konieczny successlly passed the test 

with an uncompromising scheme in which 

form follows topography more than nction. 

At the same time, he created a cosy retreat in 

which to relax and contemplate the landscape. 

His weekend house connects architecture 

and nature, while not ignoring the desire for 

securi. The intriguing boat-shaped structure 

draws the attention of locals and incidental 

passers-by. Curiously, it also attracts animals – 

horses and sheep from nearby farms, as well as 

wild deer – who find shelter from the weather 

under the inclined base. Their presence not 

only eliminates the need for keeping the grass 

mowed, but also evokes idyllic images of Noah’s 

biblical ship. No wonder that the new house 

has already been christened ‘Konieczny’s Ark’. _ 

kwkpromes.pl



121 

challenge for any architect’ 

Inthewordsofthearchitect:‘Thewonderl view 

is the most important aspect of the building site.’ 

Photo Jakub Certowicz


The‘invertedroof’underthehousestabilizes 

theconstruction,lendsanairoflightnessto 

thebuildingand,whenilluminatedatnight, 

addstotheoccupants’senseofsecuri. The 

house takes its nickname, ‘Konieczny’s Ark’, 

from its shape and its attraction to animals.



123 

‘In Konieczny’s 

uncompromising 

scheme, form 

follows 

topography’ 

The base helps to stabilize the construction, 

can be illuminated and provides storage space. 

Plan 

08 

01 Entrance 

02 Living 

03 Dining 

04 Kitchen 

05 Bedroom 

06 Bathroom 

07 Technical room 

08 Terrace 

06 

05 

05 05 

06 07 

04 


08 


01 

Long Section 

Cross Section


Malcolm Reading.

Malcolm Reading Consultants 

Architecture Competitions 

125 

The Competition 

Malcolm Reading organizes architecture 

competitions. ‘We’re looking for a building 

that will be forever linked with the moment 

a career was made.’ 

Text 

Giovanna Dunmall 

Photo 

Andrew Meredith 

London-basedMalcolmReadingConsultants 

isthatrarething:acompanythatorganizes 

andrunsinternationalarchitecture 

competitions.‘Ithinkthere’sonlyoneother 

companyintheworldthatspecializesin 

architecturecompetitionsanditisinGermany,’ 

saysfounderMalcolmReading.‘Theytendto 

focusonopendesigncompetitionshowever, 

whichisthewaytheyarerunincontinental 

Europe,whereaswetendtofocusontwo-stage 

processeswhereyoufirstselectdesignersand 

thenyouaskthemtodesign.’MalcolmReading 

hasbeenactiveforalmost 20 years and runs 

both public and private competitions, more 

recently getting involved in developer-led 

work too. The 9-person team includes his wife 

Catherine Reading, a former journalist and 

two qualified architects (Malcolm Reading and 

Director of Projects David Hamilton). Wellknown 

and recent competitions include the 

UK pavilions at the last two World Expos, 

the Gu≫enheim museum in Finland, the 

V&A extension in London and the Mumbai 

Ci Museum. 

What are architecture competitions 

particularly good for in your view? 

MALCOLM READING: What competitions 

do is find talent. If you look through our 

competitions, people like Amanda Levete 

and Thomas Heatherwick made a threshold 

step through winning a competition. Most 

architects have. It’s a special moment because 

you are being assessed by your peers; a jury is 

a great place where a conversation starts about 

the potential for the building. A competition 

also enables the widest possible investigation 

into the problem and allows real innovation in 

approach and expertise. 

In mainland Europe there is growing concern 

about the way architecture competitions 

favour larger established practices over smaller 

inexperienced ones. What do you think about 

architects being excluded from competitions 

due to lack of relevant experience? 

No architect has done a library when he or she 

does his first library! We ran a competition 

in association with the Royal Institute of 

British Architects for the Halley VI research 

station on the South Pole and it had to follow 

OJEU [EU-established public procurement] 

rules.Whenitcomestothepointofaskingfor 

relevantexperience,whatdoyouwrite?Do 

you have to have five sub-Antarctic buildings 

under your belt? That would have limited it to 

probably two practices in the world. So I said, 

why don’t we just turn that around and ask 

architects to demonstrate through case studies 

what an extreme situation was for them and 

howtheyrespondedtoit.Soitdidn’thaveto 

be extremely cold, it could be something to do 

with the client or the construction process. 

That’showwegotpeoplelikeHughBroughton 

[who won the competition; seeMark 45, page 

124] and all the others who had never carried 

out this sort of work on the list. 

So the British Antarctic Survey [BAS] took 

ariskbyusingsomeonewithnoSouthPole 

experience, but it paid off. 

The client had tried every building pology 

tillthen.Somehadbeensnowedunder,some 

had disappeared off a glacier. BAS realized at 

that point that they had to up their game to 

get people to go and live in Antarctica for 18 

months. They wanted this building to be almost 

like the space station, something that would be 

identifiable and spoke about what they were 

trying to do. You would have thought that the 

bi≫est risk BAS could take was to appoint 

an emerging architect to do a building like 

this, which is essentially like a submarine, 

alifesupportsystem...Ifitgoeswrong,you 

are dead! But they thought that they could 

balance and manage the risk. And they got 

a fantastic outcome. 

Tell me about the Gu≫enheim Helsinki 

competition. 

The Gu≫enheim asked us to help them design 

a competition that would be genuinely open, 

genuinely anonymous and that would attract →


Photo Riitta Supperi 

‘The history 

of design 

contests 

shows that 

less than 

halfofthe 

projects ever 

get built’ 

newandyoungpractices.Itwouldn’tbeclosed 

to established architects, they were reaching 

out to the architectural communi 

of tomorrow. 

You got an astounding number of responses. 

We had 4 million page hits on the competition 

website; we normally get around 100,000 page 

hits for most of our websites. It is difficult 

to predict how many people will enter any 

competitionbutwehavearegistrationsystem 

and find usually about 35 to 40 per cent end 

up entering. For Helsinki about 6,000 people 

registered so we knew something was coming! 

Intheendtherewere1,715entries. 

Wasitasurprisetoyouthatsomanypeople 

entered? 

Itwas,butputthewordsGu≫enheimand 

Helsinki together and every architect wanted 

to do something. That is what we are all 

brought up on: Helsinki is the design capital 

of the world and Gu≫enheim is an icon for 

many architects. 

How did you help the 11-man jury deal with the 

mammoth task of sorting through 1,700-plus 

entries? 

Wedidsomeworkbeforehand.Withthehelp 

oftwojurors,onefromtheUSandonefrom 

Finland, we split the 1,700 entries into two 

piles. One pile was given the green or yellow 

light and one pile was given a red light and 

quarantined. We split up the rest into groups 

randomly and created pairs in the jury, made up 

of a Fin and an international member. We sent 

each pair 150 entries electronically from the 

pile we thought was worth looking at. We also 

sent them the whole of the quarantined vault 

so they could get a sense of what the panel 

thought had made the grade and what hadn’t. 

When they came to Helsinki they had already 

seen a large number of entries and had looked 

specifically at 150. 

Did anything make it out of the quarantined 

vault onto the final shortlist? 

Yes, two or three projects I think. We had 

rejected them for quali standards, but it is 

uptothejurytointerpretthebriefandthe 

assessment criteria. That’s the skill of the jury. 

The reason we created the vault was just to 

help them. Instead of saying ‘here are over 

1,700 entries, now start’, we helped them get 

into the process intellectually. We wanted them 

to start small but grow in confidence together. 

What did you make of the rival competition 

chaired by New York-based architect and 

writer Michael Sorkin, which sought to explore 

alternative proposals for the wider site, taking 

factors such as housing, sustainabili and local 

arts into consideration. 

The competitions were seeking very different 

outcomes – Sorkin’s was more about the 

intellectual potential of cultural regeneration, 

whereas ours was a real brief on a real site. 

It obviously used the publici around the 

Gu≫enheim competition by seeking to make 

itsannouncementshardontheheelsofours– 

but I don’t believe there was ever any consion 

in the minds of competitors. As far as I can 

tell, each competition attracted a different 

audience. It’s for others to judge if it made 

an impact. Sorkin is a brilliant commentator 

on the state of cities. This would have been a 

great opportuni for dialogue – I even wrote 

to Sorkin su≫esting we correspond, but he 

disregarded this. 

The Gu≫enheim was an open design contest 

but you tend to run two-stage competitions. 

Whatisyourviewonbothpesof 

competition? 

I have ambivalent views about design contests. 

They can be very powerl, but the history 

of design contests shows that less than half 

of the projects ever get built. And there are 

lots of reasons for that. Partly it’s because 

as a client you have to decide your brief at 

a very early stage and don’t get the chance 

to change it. Once you have finished Stage 

One the architects have already made a lot 

of commitments, which they can’t really 

reverse out of. I also think the anonymi is a 

problem, because life is about cultural fit and 

relationships and so the jury is judging only the 

design, they are not considering the team or the 

individuals and how they work together. 

Iammuchmoreinfavourofatwostage 

process where you issue a call for 

expressions of interest, draw up a shortlist and 

then ask the chosen architects to design the

Malcolm Reading Consultants 

Architecture Competitions 

127 

building.Itislessofaninvestmentandisbetter 

fortheindustryandbetterforthearchitects. 

Thehitrateoftwo-stageprocessesisfarbetter. 

Howdoyouensurethatyoungandemerging 

practicesareconsideredfortwo-stage 

competitions?Andhowdoyoukeepontopof 

allthetalentoutthere? 

David[Hamilton]holdsasurgeryonFriday 

afternoonswherehemeetstwoorthree 

practices.Sometimestheydropinand 

sometimesweaskthemtocomein.Wealso 

havearesearchteamandadirectoryofabout 

3,000 to 4,000 architects and designers around 

the world. I try to do quite a lot of judging, for 

the likes of WAN [World Architecture News] 

and AIA [American Institute of Architects]. 

We keep up with emerging practices and also 

withpeoplewholeaveandsetupadifferent 

emerging practice. We try to keep up with what 

they are interested in and what their skills are 

so that we can match them with clients for 

invited competitions. 

Whatisoneofthemostcommonquestions 

clients ask you? 

‘I want to run a competition and I want Norman 

FosterandRichardRogersontheshortlist.’ 

Many clients have never commissioned 

architects so they only know what they have 

read in the paper. When you probe a little deeper 

you find out that what they are really looking 

forisalandmarkofsomepe.Theywantto 

be able to say, this is our building and this is 

a great architect. That is where we can talk to 

them about the talent that is coming up. In the 

case of the Shanghai Expo in 2010, the event 

and Heatherwick will be forever linked. If you 

were on the commissioning team you have 

that forever. That’s what we are looking for: a 

building that will forever be linked with the 

moment a career was made. 

How vital is a good jury? And what makes 

a good jury? 

Myviewaboutjuriesisthattheyshould 

be built for the project and not called off 

a list. And I also believe that they shouldn’t 

be ll of architects. I think a jury should 

reflect something of the project so it should 

have a stakeholder, a critical friend who is 

completely independent of the process, and 

people from the client group who are going to 

be responsible for delivering the competition 

project.Wealsoliketohavepeopleonthejury 

who are a little leftfield. So on the Mumbai 

Ci museum competition we had the Head of 

the Harvard Humanities department, a chap 

called Homi Bhabha who is an anthropologist. 

Itwassorefreshingtohavesomeonewhois 

outside the profession but is very involved in 

the effect of the built environment on people. 

We’ll often try to have people who come 

from a different perspective but can provide 

something special to the brief. 

Soajurymadeupofonlyarchitectswould 

be problematic? 

It’s difficult because an architect often wants 

to start designing. And when you find 

an architect with the right focus and 

understanding of what the competition is 

trying to achieve, they want to enter the 

competition themselves. The problem, with 

all juries I think, is that if you have highly 

respected professional practitioners their 

voicecandrownouttheothers.Youhaveto 

think about balance in a jury like you do in 

a selection panel. The best ones are collegial 

and are run like an intellectual debate. 

What makes a great brief? 

The best briefs are a statement of intent. Many 

clients make the mistake of listing a schedule of 

areas and nctional criteria but the best briefs 

combine vision, context and ambition alongside 

more measurable objectives. It is a starting 

point in a long conversation. I often ask clients 

to imagine a day-in-the-life of the completed 

building, to project themselves forward and 

visualize the things that are important to them. 

Is stealing ideas a problem in competitions? 

I think there is sensitivi around design 

contests because they are anonymous – we 

certainly had it with the Gu≫enheim. Some 

people were concerned so we deliberately kept 

the resolution of the online gallery low so that 

youcouldn’tprintoffbigdrawings.Doesit 

happen on competitions? I’m not so sure 

really. I haven’t had anyone tell me ‘we have 

seen that drawing somewhere else’. I also think 

as a business strategy it’s doomed to fail. 

Who wants to be known for stealing other 

people’s ideas? 

There are stories of bi≫er practices bringing 

in flashy models when they are told not to and 

winning competitions as a result. 

We are very carel about that. It happens and 

youhavetothinkaboutthatinadvanceand 

be fair. When we ask for models now they 

are usually drop-in models. The client builds 

a model of the ci for example and you drop 

your section in so that everyone starts with 

the same base and you can’t come in with 

a fantastic gold-plated model that lights up. _ 

malcolmreading.co.uk 

The1,715entriesforGu≫enheim Helsinki 

were judged by (from left to right) Jeanne 

Gang, Nancy Spector, Mikko Aho, Helena 

Sateri, Juan Herreros, Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, 

Anssi Lassila, Ritva Viljanen, Mark Wigley, 

Erkki Leppavuori and Rainer Mahlamaki. 

Photo Riitta Supperi


PenneHangelbroekandAdriaan 

Geuzeconceivedthemasterplanfor 

WaterliniemuseumFortbijVechten. 

They restored a wide strip of the 

fortress to its original 1880 state. 

Photo Ossip van Duivenbode


Bunnik — Netherlands 

129 

OpentheGates 

The New Hollandic Water Line is an 

ingenious, eighteenth-century defence 

system that has had new life breathed 

into it by the Waterliniemuseum 

FortbijVechten.PenneHangelbroek 

and Adriaan Geuze made the master 

plan for this open-air museum. 

Anne Holtrop designed the museum 

building, with a 50-m-long model of 

the military system at its core. 

Text 

Kirsten Hannema


Penne Hangelbroek was responsible for the renovation 

of the fortress, for the supervision, the signage and the 

reconstruction of the defence walls. 

Photo Jeroen Musch 

It's 

Between 2010 and 2012, a new entrance building, a 

new access bridge and a corridor through the earth 

wall designed by K2 architects were realized. 


hardtoexplainwhattheNewHollandic 

WaterLineis.Youcouldstartwithafactual 

descriptionofthis85-km-longmilitarydefence 

system,conceivedintheeighteenthcentury 

byhydraulicengineerCornelisKraijenhoffto 

protectthecitiesinthewestoftheNetherlands 

againstadvancingforeignarmies.TheLine 

wascompletedin 1880. It was a state secret, 

a cra≫y line across the landscape stretching 

from Pampus, a fortress island situated near 

Amsterdam, to the more southern wetlands of 

the Biesbosch. The ingeniously planned system 

combined sluices, dikes, bunkers, batteries, 

firing ranges and inundation fields – totalling 

some 1,000 objects. In case of an attack over 

land, a permanent defence force of 12,000 men 

could inundate a 4-km-wide strip of land under 

30 cm of water. This would render a large 

area impassable for both enemy infantry and 

vessels. Fortifications and 46 fortresses were 

built around a number of towns in the higherlying 

areas across the Water Line. 

Then you could explain that in the end, 

thewholeprojectwasnevermadeoperational 

and was soon superseded by the introduction 

of the modern air force in the beginning of 

the twentieth century. Like Sleeping Beau, 

the Line fell into a 100-year sleep, until people 

began to realize its cultural value. In 1995 it 

was listed as a national monument; in 2005 it 

was awarded the status of National Landscape 

and now it’s been nominated for inclusion 

on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. But even 

standing in the middle of the Water Line area, 

you wouldn’t notice anything special. You 

wouldn’t be able to see where the fortresses 

were hidden; you wouldn’t know how it’d feel 

to be in a bunker, let alone what the situation 

would’ve been like ‘at war’. That’s what the 

newlyopenedWaterliniemuseumFortbij 

Vechten wants to change. 

The Waterliniemuseum is the worthy 

culmination of the National Project New 

Hollandic Water Line, one of the ten ‘Big 

Projects’ (including the renovation of the 

Rijksmuseum) that then chief government 

architectJoCoenensetinmotionin2001.It 

was clear to him that without a general plan, 

the monument would disintegrate. Landscape 

architect Eric Luiten outlined a scenario for the 

project on the principle that ‘conservation by 

renovation’ was necessary to adapt the former 

line of defence to suit new nctions that 

ranged from living and working to recreation 

and culture. The centrally situated Fort bij 

Vechten was designated the location for the 

Waterliniemuseum: an open-air museum where 

the public would get to know the defence 

system and even get to experience it. To this 

end, Penne Hangelbroek and Adriaan Geuze 

(founder of West 8 Urban Design & Landscape 

Architecture) made a master plan in 2004. 

‘Our main concern was how we could 

reconcile natural, cultural and economic 

interestsinthemuseumconcept,’Hangelbroek 

explains. ‘We came in at a time when the Dutch 

Forestry Commission, the province of Utrecht 

and the bureau New Hollandic Water →



131 


06 

05 

07 

04 

01 

08 



0 

01 Parkingarea 

02 Access bridge 

03 Corridor through the earth wall 

04 Museum building 

05 Water Line model 

06 Zip line 

07 Raft connection 

08 Reconstructed strip


Linewereintheprocessofbeingdrivenapart 

byincompatibledemands.Buildingonsite 

wasapointofcontention.Thereforeourmain 

assumptionwasthattherewasn’tgoingtobe 

abuilding,butthatthefortresswouldexplain 

itself.’Tothatend,thedesignersproposeda 

numberofland-art-likeinterventions.The 

parkingarea,forinstance,hasbeendecorated 

withconcrete‘tank-barrageelements’(design: 

Parklaanarchitects)andthewalkacrossthe 

moatandthroughtheearthwallsurrounding 

thefortresshasbeenhighlightedbyanew 

bridgeandconcretecorridor,designedby 

K2architects,theofficethatalsobuiltthe 

visitorcentre–amoderninterpretation 

ofaweaponswarehouse. 

‘MuseumInselHombroich[amuseum 

inGermanywherethenaturalenvironment, 

architectureandartweredesignedin 

conjunction]wasasourceofinspirationfor 

themasterplan,’saysHangelbroek.‘Afterall, 

withits 23 hectares of land, the fortress is 

also a kind of park. We imagined creating a 

hiking trail along elements that would both 

raise questions about the Water Line, and 

answer them.’ Therefore, Hangelbroek and 

Geuze’s most important intervention was to 

create the so-calledStrook (Strip). It comprises 

azoneof80×450minwhichthefortress, 

which was completely overgrown, has been 

returned to its original, 1880 situation. Here, 

it’s plain to see how the length of the sight 

lines and the differences in altitude make 

the ‘defence machine’ work. The museum is 

located just outside this strip, in the densely 

wooded landscape. Hangelbroek: ‘We wanted 

the encounter of nature and culture to be 

as rich in contrast as possible. The contrast 

creates the lessons, the wonder. This way, we 

hope to arouse curiosi and that is in fact the 

musicological concept.’ 

Since there still was a need for 

extra exhibition space and therefore a 

new museum building, supervisor Penne 

Hangelbroekproposedtogivesuchabuilding 

an underground location and integrate a 

model of the entire Line in it. In 2010, ten 

young architects entered a competition for the 

design of this building. ‘The contour map of 

the terrain, with its cra≫y lines, immediately 

fired my imagination,’ says architect Anne 

Holtrop about his winning design. It was his 

first major assignment after a series of highprofile 

installations and (temporary) pavilions 

– although as it turned out, it wasn’t his first big 

project to be built: the pavilion Holtrop designed 

for the Kingdom of Bahrain at the World Expo 

in Milan was completed earlier in 2015. 

Holtrop designed the building as ‘a 

contemporary interpretation of a fortress’. 

‘I wanted to make the Water Line phenomenon 

perceptible to the senses,’ he explains. From the 

outside, you can only see the upper edges of the 

sloping walls of two patios that have been cut 

out of the concrete building; an unpolishedromantic 

image. The entrance is reached via 

the former barracks in front of the museum. 

Of the long line of doors that once led to the → 

AnneHoltroptookthecra≫y lines across the landscape 

as a starting point for the design of the museum building. 


‘I wanted 

a sculpture 

in one 

piece, in 

keeping 

with the 

ideaofa 

fortress’



133 

TheVisit 

Photo Luuc Jonker 

It’sSundaymorningandit’sveryquietattheWaterliniemuseum. 

That’swonderlforchildren,whohavetheringingtelephones 

situatedjustbeyondtheentrancecompletelyattheirdisposal. 

Whenyoupickoneup,avoiceexplainswhat’sonshowatthe 

museum.Thedesignoftheexhibitionisn’tasexceptionalas 

thebuilding,butthewaythestoryoftheWaterLineistold 

isoriginal,withinstallations,photosandprojections.Here 

andthere,smallbucketsdotthespace,catchingwater.The 

extraordinarybuildingisleakinginseveralplaces. 

Chairssuspendedonsteelcablesadornalargewindowthat 

overlookstheoutdoormodel.Wearingvirtualreali glasses, 

you can make a parachute jump here. As you ascend, the model 

in front of you transforms into the ‘real’ Water Line. High above 

the landscape you jump, and then a strip of land that meanders 

among cities and fortresses slowly floods. With both feet back on 

the ground, we expect the outdoor model to be the highlight of 

our visit. Unfortunately, most of the wheels with which visitors 

can flood the land are already out of order; we only manage to 

operate a single sluice. Actually, one of the felt sculptures in the 

exhibition forewarned us: the Water Line is an ingenious system, 

but it does require maintenance.



otherwiseundergroundbarracks,number10 

givesvisitorsaccesstothealsounderground 

museum.Youwalkthroughadark,lowcorridor 

andthensuddenlyyou’reinside,lookingacross 

thesmallpatiotothelandscapeandthes 

above.Youtakeacoupleofstepsandyouare 

inthecentralpatiothatfeaturesthepiècede 

résistance:a50-m-long concrete model of the 

Water Line that visitors can inundate section 

by section. Holtrop: ‘I’m not in favour of 

digital representation, I believe in the power of 

physical, manifest space. In this model, I wanted 

to make that tangible with water, sluices and an 

“actual” IJsselmeer. The model can be inundated 

with 20,000 l of water time after time.’ 

Though the museum looks complicated, 

its plan is surprisingly simple. ‘I took the map 

of the terrain and simply superimposed a 

rectangle onto it,’ says Holtrop. ‘In addition, the 

museum follows the altitude of the landscape, 

which is plain to see when you look at the walls 

around the patios. I’m always looking for extraarchitectural 

shapes to turn into architecture.’ 

From the entrance, you walk around a central 

patio through the exhibition spaces either 

clockwise or counter-clockwise. The varie 

of spaces – stemming from the fact that the 

contours of the patio as well as the altitude 

are all different – ensures that the tour keeps 

visitors captivated. However, Holtrop 

also included some peacel moments; he 

created deep window seats by the large 

windows from which visitors can observe 

the activities around the model. 

What’s fascinating about the Waterliniemuseum 

is that all materials, textures, colours and details 

stem from that very first drawing of a rectangle 

onamap.‘Iwantedtocreateasculptureinone 

piece, in keeping with the idea of a fortress,’ says 

Holtrop. ‘And I wanted a monochrome building. 

The construction joints and formwork seams 

weren’t smoothed away and remain visible, but 

the concrete was sandblasted after the casing 

was removed. This way, the look of the material 

dependsontheweather.Abitlikethenatural 

marks on the leather of a bag.’ A brown pigment 

wasaddedtotheconcretetoreinforcethe 

effect. The incidence of light on the undulating 

façades changes the colour of the material from 

yellowish to blueish to almost red. 

The building was constructed by 

civil engineering company Heijmans, which 

has built mostly roads and fly-overs since 

its establishment in 1923. ‘This is their first 

building,’ Holtrop laughs. It was quite a job for 

the company. ‘In this building, no two curves 

are identical so everything was formed on site. 

Solid, without any expansion seams and cast 

in one go with all the equipment, the lighting 

and the model – exactly as I wanted. It needed 

a lot of reinforcing steel, which had to be bent 

beforehand as well. Yes, it’s a design with 

extreme consequences. To me, that’s exactly 

what gives the building its character.’ _ 

jonathanpenne.nl 

west8.nl 

anneholtrop.nl 

Thewallsofthemuseumbuildingconstituteboththe 

structureandthefinish,whichmeantthatthingslike 

cut-outsforlightingandelectrici sockets had to be 

designated at an early stage. 

Photo Luuc Jonker



135 

The exhibition in Anne Holtrop’s museum building 

was designed by Platform Amsterdam. 


06 

08 

06 

07 

04 

0 

05 

06 

01 Former barracks 

02 Entrance 

03 Toilets 

04 Café 

05 Shop 

06 Exhibition space 

07 Auditorium 

08 Model 

01 


03


TheWayAroundtheNew 

Hollandic Water Line 

In recent years, several of the fortresses that are part of 

the New Hollandic Water Line have been overhauled. 

What makes all of these projects interesting is the 

paradox implied in the transformation challenge: 

to make a building that was originally designed to 

remain hidden accessible to a broad public. Apparently, 

this stimulates creativi. 

4 

1 

5 

2 

3 

6 

FortWerkaan’tSpoel 

Culemborg,Netherlands 

RAAAF – Atelier de Lyon – 

Monk Architecten –2011 

The New Hollandic Water Line 

1 Waterliniemuseum Fort bij Vechten 

2 FortWerkaan’tSpoel 

3 Bunker 599 

4 Fort bij ’t Hemeltje 

5 Gedekte Gemeenschapsweg 

6 Fort Asperen 

Landscape architect and artist Ronald 

Rietveld (RAAAF) designed Fort Werk aan 

’t Spoel in collaboration with Atelier de 

Lyon as a ‘grass sculpture’ that includes 

both old buildings and new ones – such 

as an amphitheatre, bunkers and bombproof 

buildings. The fortress has been 

given a cultural use and can host theatre 

performances, workshops and exhibitions. 

The hospitali pavilion Forthuis was 

designed by Monk Architecten. 

raaaf.nl 

delyon.nl 

monkarchitecten.nl



137 

Theshapeofthehospitali pavilion 

designed by Monk refers to the curves of 

the surrounding bunkers and rampart. 

Photo Rob ’t Hart 

Photo Liniebureau Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie


ThesplitbunkerissituatedontheDiefdijklinie,along 

whichthebusy traffic of the A2 – one of the country’s 

most important motorways – now oftenraces. 

Photo Liniebureau Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie 

Bunker599 

Culemborg,Netherlands 

RAAAF–AtelierdeLyon–2010 

RonaldRietveldliterallycuta 

seeminglyindeliblebunkerinhalf 

andnowyoucanwalkstraight 

through.Rietveldalsodisplayed 

theinnardsofthebunkerto 

changepeople’sperspectivesofthe 

remainingsheltersthatarepart 

oftheLine. The path between the 

bunker halves opens onto a landing 

pier that ends in a double row of 

poles.Thetopofthepolesindicate 

theheightthewaterreached when 

the land was inundated. 

raaaf.nl 

delyon.nl 

RAAAF has been working on the Water Line 

since 2006 and has realized several projects 

that are a cross between art and architecture. 

Photos Allard Bovenberg



139


Fortbij’tHemeltje 

Houten,Netherlands 

BunkerQ–2014 

The designers call the new rear façade 

in solid masonry ‘a modern monument 

to the craft of fortress building’. 

Photo Gerco Meijer 

TheoldbarrackofFortbij’tHemeltjeisnow750m 2 ofofficespacethat’srentedouton 

demand.Thenewdesignoptimizesthepicalcharacteristicsofabunker.Itsthickwalls 

storeheat,whichsavesenergy.Theoldsystemforpuriing rain water into drinking water 

is now used to collect rainwater for flushing toilets. Existing chimneys and openings have 

been used as modern air conditioning and equipment conduits. Bunker Q made an opening 

in the originally closed rear façade and added a window for more daylight and to better 

connect the building to the surrounding terrain. 

bunkerq.nl 

Cross Section 0 

+1 

The opening in the back 

wall connects the central 

entrance hall to the heart 

of the fortress island, the 

terreplein (from Italian 

terrapiana) –theflat 

terrain inside a fortress or 

stronghold. 

Photo Liniebureau Nieuwe 

Hollandse Waterlinie



141


The900-m-longembankmentis21mwide 

andupto7mhigh.Theembankmentcanbe 

negotiated by passing pedestrians and cyclists 

in several locations. 

Photo Liniebureau Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie



143 

Plan 

Bunker Q collaborated with OKRA landscape 

architects to create the design and elaborations for the 

reconstruction of the groundwork, the wide corridor 

through the embankment and the stairway crossing. 



Gedekte 

Gemeenschapsweg 

Tull en ’t Waal, 

Netherlands 

BunkerQ–2008 

TheGedekteGemeenschapswegis 

partoftheStellingvanHonswijk 

andcomprisesashelteredroad 

withaparallelearthembankment 

withalengthof900m.The 

inundationcanalisontheopposite 

sideoftheembankment.Atotal 

of16,000 m 3 of earth was added 

to restore the embankment to 

its original state. In addition, 

Bunker Q designed several modern 

passages and crossings that have 

made the embankment suitable 

for recreational use: a 2.5-m-wide 

corridor, stairs with a vantage 

point, a bridge over the canal and 

apicnictable. 

bunkerq.nl


Aboveandleft The dome consists of three 

parts: a wooden construction; a steel 

suspension system and 600 glass tiles the 

Glasmuseum Leerdam made together with 

local children. 

Photos Milad Pallesh 

Opposite The dome is on top of a 10-m-high 

light shaft,rightinthemiddleoftheround 

towerfortress.Bats–whousealltheLine’s 

fortressestosleepin–canstillgetinside 

throughsmallopenings. 

Photo Liniebureau Nieuwe Hollandse Waterlinie 

DomeFortAsperen 

Acquoy,Netherlands 

BureauSLA–2015 

Section 

BureauSLAdecidedtoreturnKunstfort 

Asperentothecollectivememoryby 

involvinglocalresidentsinthedesigning. 

Fortheslight dome they built on top 

of the fortress, architect Peter van Assche 

approached local primary schools. Some 

600childreneachmadeacolourl 

drawingonaglasstile. The result is 

a space like a kaleidoscope. 

bureausla.nl



145


Photomontage showing the architectural concept: a concrete 

element inserted into the historical structure. One of the 

apartments has its rooms within the concrete element, the 

other is situated outside the concrete element.

Peter Haimerl 

Riem — Germany 

147 

What used to be a small farm, close to Munich, 

wasrenovatedbyPeterHaimerlontheoutside 

and radically remodelled on the inside. 

Text 

Sandra Hofmeister 

Photos 

Edward Beierle 

Farmhouse 

Makeover


+2 

Apartment I 

10 

05 

09 

08 

+1 

07 

06 

0 


04 


01 

01 EntranceapartmentI 

02 Entrance apartment II 

03 Entrance to basement 

04 Guest room 

05 Living room 

06 Kitchen 

07 Dining room 

08 Bathroom 

09 Master bedroom 

10 Bedroom 

Cross Section 

The double-height dining room in apartment I 

is open to the living room above it. For acoustic 

reasons, some of the walls have been clad in felt.

Peter Haimerl 


149 

Apartment I is entirely contained 

within the new concrete element. 

Riem 

usedtobeasmallBavarianvillagewitha 

churchsurroundedbyoldfarmhouses.Inthe 

1960s, the parish developed into a residential 

area on the periphery of Munich. The farmers 

sold their land to real estate agencies who 

transformed the entire area. Today, it is part of 

the ci and there is nothing left of the village 

except the church and the nearby so-called 

shoemaker’s farmhouse, which is now a listed 

monument. The proper once provided space 

for both shoemaking and a small cow farm. 

Though the pical saddle-roofed farmhouse 

from the 18 th century was dilapidated, with 

hardly more than the walls left standing, Peter 

Haimerl cleverly converted the building into a 

twin house for two families and simultaneously 

preserved evidence of its history. 

‘All farmers are proud of their dunghill,’ 

Haimerl says in Bavarian dialect. ‘That’s why 

they place it right in front of their house and 

mould it into a beautil geometric block.’ The 

Munich-based architect took this tradition 

seriously when he developed the concept for 

his intervention in the farmhouse. He placed 

a wooden structure at the entrance, exactly 

where the dunghill would have been. ‘This is an 

artificial, conceptual dunghill,’ he says, smiling 

impishly. The geometric form has the same 

shape as a properly designed dunghill, but does 

not smell and provides several usel nctions. 

It serves as a storage space for bicycles and 

rese bins, and hides a slightly sunken outdoor 

terrace that can be used for barbecues from the 

curious eyes of the neighbours. 

Details like this are a good example of 

Haimerl’s approach. He handles rural traditions 

respectlly and adjusts vernacular architecture 

to current needs and living qualities to keep it 

from disappearing altogether. He is an expert 

in preserving historical buildings while at the 

same time introducing astonishing present-day 

spaces. The modification of his own house in →


theBavarianForest(seeMark20,page166) was 

a milestone for his practice, which has now 

reached new heights with this farmhouse. 

The historical structure that 

encompassed the farmer’s dwelling, stable and 

barn under one elongated roof was maintained 

and made visible in all its details, wherever 

possible. In addition, a horizontal concrete 

element with a square section – the architect 

calls it a ‘prism’ – was added in keeping with 

the house’s structure. The two top surfaces 

correspond with the 45 degree roof pitch; the 

two bottom surfaces organize the living spaces 

in different layers. As a result, the intervention 

cannot be seen from the outside. The façades, 

with their green blinds and small windows, 

are lly original. But the interiors show an 

exciting interaction between old and new, with 

two connecting apartments, each about 140 m 2 

and with separate entrances. 

‘Dividing the house down the middle 

would have resulted in characterless cubes,’ 

says Haimerl. ‘That’s why I interlocked the two 

apartments in a spatial L-form.’ The apartment 

behind the south gable (Apartment II) stretches 

over two floors, from the living quarters of 

the farmer to the former stable underneath 

the inserted concrete element. All the primary 

rooms and materials that had survived time 

were restored. Low ceilings and sloping walls 

are evidence of the history of the house, which 

is also visible in some of the timber walls and 

coloured layers of paint on floor beams and 

door frames. In contrast, the surfaces of the 

newly added parts are pristinely white. They 

offer a neutral frame to the historical parts, 

not competing with them. This is different 

inthebathroomandthekitchenofthis 

apartment. They are located in what used to 

be the stable, and is now dominated by the 

concrete element. Its inclined walls have been 

left in fair-faced concrete that stresses the 

difference with the old parts of the house. Like 

a light channel, the invisible window of the 

bathroomonthefirstfloorletsthedaylight 

flow across a slanted wall, down into the solid 

bathtub. The surprising and uncompromising 

design of the space is reminiscent of reduced 

Japanese aesthetics and very far removed 

from a traditional Bavarian farmhouse. This 

atmosphere is also present in the kitchen on 

the ground floor. The kitchen block is made of 

local spruce and placed in front of an original 

brick wall. But the slanted concrete ceiling, the 

underside of the concrete element, implements 

a contemporary architectural language and 

gives the generous room the character of a 

spatial sculpture. 

In the other apartment, located in 

the former barn on the north side of the 

volume (Apartment I), the concrete element 

is omnipresent. It organizes the living spaces 

on three levels. The dining area opens up to 

almostthellheightoftheelement.Asimple 

staircase with wooden steps offers access 

tothedifferentlevels:itleadstothekitchen 

platform and rther up to the living room 

on the mezzanine under the roof. All levels 

are designed as galleries that offer generous 

The living room, bedrooms and bathroom of apartment I 

are all located on the upper floor, under the pitched roof. 

sight lines across the apartment. ‘I wanted to 

create a different flow of space than usual,’ 

says Haimerl, ‘a sort of swing movement that 

is reminiscent of the mountains.’ He covered 

both end sides of the concrete element and 

the sections inside the geometric form with 

simple industrial felt that absorbs noise. The 

othersurfacesareleftinconcrete.Theture 

residents of the apartment will definitely have 

to be light on their feet. When they reach the 

living area at the top of their mountain-like 

home,theycansitdownatthefireplace,which 

is cut into a concrete wall, on a long, built-in 

bench to rest. The two bedrooms on the upper 

levelareattachedtothislivingzoneandreceive 

daylight through small historical windows in 

the south gable of the house. 

The consistent use of raw materials for both the 

newly added parts and the historical shell is 

a key aspect of the architectural intervention. 

It shows respect for indigenous traditions and 

the original farmhouse. According to a local 

myth, in the old days the farm workers put 

a gramophone outside, under a pear tree in 

front of the house. On Sundays they invited 

alltheservantsintheneighbourhoodtodance 

with them. The farmhouse is a testament to 

a history that’s ll of anecdotes like these. 

But today there are no fruit trees anymore; 

the farmhouse stands in the middle of a dense 

settlement with trivial prefab houses that 

almost touch it on all sides. _ 

peterhaimerl.com

Peter Haimerl 


151 

‘All farmers are proud of their dunghill’


+2 

Apartment II 

+1 

10 

09 

08 

0 

The big kitchen in apartment II is located below 

the new concrete structure. 

04 


06 

05 


07 

01 

01 Entrance apartment I 

02 EntranceapartmentII 

03 Entrancetobasement 

04 Guestroom 

05 Livingroom 

06 Kitchen 

07 Diningroom 

08 Bathroom 

09 Masterbedroom 

10 Bedroom 

In apartment II, several of the old rooms 

were restored to their original state. 

The collision of new and old elements lend this 

former farmhouse a contemporary character.

Peter Haimerl 


153 

Theslightinthefirstfloorbathroomof 

apartment II creates a contemplative atmosphere.


AlexMcDowell. 

Photo 5D Global Studio

Alex McDowell 

Los Angeles — CA — USA 

155 

‘Narrative 

is not yet 

a big enough 

component in 

architecture’ 

Production designer Alex McDowell 

talks about his practice of world 

building and his first steps into 

architecture and urban planning in 

the real world. 

Text 

Oliver Zeller


Designsketchandscenefromthe 

filmMinoriReport(StevenSpielberg, 

TwentiethCenturyFox,2002).In2054, 

theWashington,DCareahasexpandedto 

incorporateaverticalci in which cars 

double as elevators. 

In 

the1978essay,‘HowtoBuildaUniverse 

That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later’, 

author Philip K. Dick wrote that socie 

is being ‘bombarded with pseudo-realities 

manufactured by very sophisticated people’, 

from politicians to novelists creating worlds 

and ‘whole universes’. 

Around this time, Alex McDowell 

studied painting at London’s Central School 

ofArtandDesignandbecameinvolvedin 

the punk rock scene, designing graphics and 

record covers for musicians such as the Sex 

Pistols andI≫yPop. This lead to music videos 

and commercials, where he collaborated with 

director David Fincher and in 1992became 

afeaturefilmproductiondesigneron The 

Lawnmower Man,thefirstfilmtoexplore 

virtualspaceandreali. 

A decade later, McDowell designed the 

turistic world of Steven Spielberg’s Minori 

Report, a film inspired by a Philip K. Dick short 

story, which would prove highly influential. 

As he clarifies, ‘there was no script leading 

into the film, there was no linear narrative to 

follow’; instead the world and architecture 

would help define the film’s primary narrative. 

It is here that McDowell cemented his practice 

of world building as a design process evident 

in such films as Cat in the Hat, Charlie and the 

Chocolate Factory, Watchmen (Mark 19, page 

37), Upside Down (Mark 44, page 30) and Man 

of Steel (Mark 46, page 40), building on an 

oeuvre that already included The Crow, Fear and 

Loathing in Las Vegas and Fight Club.Evenathis 

most conventional he designed an airport for 

Spielberg’s The Terminal,aworlduntoitselfand 

one of the largest film sets in history. 

In2015, the non-profit 5D initiative 

he founded in collaboration with USC’s 

School of Cinematic Arts – described as a 

group of interdisciplinary creators who talk 

about learning how to build new worlds – 

was renamed the World Building Institute. 

Through this endeavour and his 5D Global 

Studio, Alex McDowell is taking his world 

building methodologies in new directions, 

including architecture and urban planning, 

using narrative to help improve and evaluate 

design, define systems and meet needs that the 

traditional design process might overlook. 

Though your background is in the graphic arts, 

you have close ties to architecture? 

ALEX MCDOWELL: As you say, my 

relationship to media came through painting, 

though my brother is an architect who has a 

practice in London, McDowell+Benedetti. They 

create very purist, rigorous architectural spaces 

influenced by Alvar Aalto and Louis Kahn. 

When I moved into film, I started to think

Alex McDowell 

about the art of space, the spatial relationships 

ofpeopleinenvironmentsandbecamevery 

interested in architecture, referencing it much 

more in my work than I do straight film 

design. That’s progressed, to where we’re doing 

increasingly more work with architects. As 

many as a third of my class [Imagining Worlds: 

Narrative Design Across Disciplines at USC] 

are from the school of architecture. I think 

that’s because we’re really pushing the idea of 

narrative in space, and exploring the role of 

storytelling in real world space. 

You frequently work with architect Greg Lynn 

and collaborated on the MoMA project, the 

NewCi.WhendidyoufirstmeetGreg? 

Greg was a consultant on Minori Report and 

had a radical effect. When we took on Minori 


Reportwehadtothinkaboutdesigningthe 

architectureofthetureandwedidn’thave 

thetoolsforit.Filmartdepartmentsdidn’t 

reallyhaveanyknowledgeofCADand 3D 

design tools; that existed in digital effects and 

post production. At the beginning I went to 

various studios, including Greg’s and Frank 

Gehry’s office, and talked to architects about 

designing organic buildings and the tools they 

used to design forms that were not readily 

available through pencil.Minori Report 

changed completely from the beginning of 

the film where we used acrylic paints and 

pencils, to the end when we were the first lly 

digital art department. Greg was a huge help: 

he had started using animation software to 

design architecture and I brought some young 

architects using Maya, which he was working → 

157 

‘For Minori 

Report, we 

built the 

world first 

and allowed 

the narrative 

to evolve’ 

Design sketch and scene from the film 

Watchmen (Zack Snyder, Warner Bros., 

2009), showing the Glass Palace on 

Mars, home of blue-skinned superhero 

Doctor Manhattan.


Designed within the context of McDowell’s 

5D Global Studio, Al Baydha is a sustainable 

village of 3,000 people in Saudi Arabia. 

‘Weusefictionasatooltoextrapolate 

forward and design towards a solution’ 

with or teaching, into the union in order to hire 

them on the film. 

Howdidyouapproachthedesignofature 

Washington, DC forMinoriReport? 

The sion of architecture and transport 

was especially bold. 

As production designer I would always look at 

the ll picture – the historical sociopolitical 

contexttothestory.Herewasanopportuni, 

however, to build the world first and allow 

the narrative to evolve. There was no script 

leading into this film, so we let go of the 

notion of a linear driver for narrative. Instead 

it was crucial to look at it as a holistic space. 

We had to consider this as urban planning – a 

sociopolitical explorative that postulates how 

architecture may evolve in the next10,15,20 

to 50 years. We looked at 2020 as a horizon 

in order to fill the world with accessible and 

achievable advances. The setting of 2054 was 

far enough over the horizon that big disruptive 

changes like the pre-cogs [mutated humans 

who ‘previsualize’ crimes] could exist. The 

presence of the pre-cogs instigates a set of 

rulesthatdefineshowtheciwouldbehave. 

A connection formed between a new kind 

of policing with the pre-cogs and an influx 

of population that couldn’t build in old DC 

because the zoning prevents anyone building 

higher than the Capitol Building. A new 

vertical ci would then spring up on the 

othersideofthePotomacRiver.Itsdensi 

would create issues of light access to lower 

parts, polarizing the social strata. We asked 

how does Tom Cruise, who lives high in the 

vertical ci, get to work in the morning? What 

if there isn’t enough space in the footprint of 

the architecture to accommodate the amount 

of vertical traffic required? Elevators are a 

powerl component of how one negotiates 

the verticali of a ci, so what if an elevator 

became a hybridized self-driving vehicle. We 

were looking at how the world would tri≫er 

new solutions and that transportation system 

came directly out of asking those questions. 

InManofSteel, you deviate from traditional 

depictions of Krypton, Superman’s home planet. 

How did that come about? 

We invented a new set of rules for Krypton; 

on Krypton there are no straight lines. It 

evolved from redesigning the sigma S and 

thinking of it in the vein of Art Nouveau. Much 

like Karl Blossfeldt and his macro-photography 

of the biological form launched an observation 

then, there was a similar driver on Krypton. 

Krypton’s architecture evolved from a different 

understanding of form, from a cellular level 

where objects were grown and were partially 

organic. It was a really interesting exercise 

to explore how the form of objects and 

architecture might have evolved and how they 

wouldbeifwemadethem.Wekeptallthe 

rapid protoping facilities in lower mainland 

British Columbia busy for about three months, 

3D printing, CNC cutting, mould-making, and 

then treating these objects with stencils. 

How do you see world building ing into real 

world architecture? 

It strikes me that narrative is not a big enough 

component yet in architecture. We’re still 

living in a world where certain architects, who 

should remain nameless, are more interested in 

imposing their slistic stamp: the starchitect. 

I don’t believe the evolution of architecture at 

aciscaleisgenerallycomingfromadeep 

desire to find the holistic drive of that space. 

What are the social demands, the historical and 

cultural context, the environmental demands 

of a population that has a powerl need for 

cultural persistence or change? We’ve been 

working on a project in Saudi Arabia called

Alex McDowell 


159 

AlBaydha,lookingatdevelopingsustainable 

architectureandagricultureforarelatively 

smallvillageof3,000people.Thefocusisto 

deeplyunderstandtheneedsofaBedouintribe 

withathousandyearsofcultureandhowthey 

integratefrombeingnomadictoplacedina 

fixedconcreteandagriculturalcontext.How 

doesthatbecomefeasibleforthemculturally 

andhowwilltheyoccupythesespaces.Asa 

filmdesigner,ourjobisnottoimposeasle 

oraestheticonthesesolutions,that’stheleast 

importantthing.It’spurelyabouthowwe 

respecttheneedsofthesystemandallowthe 

evolutionofthedesignsolutiontorespectand 

facilitatethecontinuationofthesystem.That 

requiresjustasmuchinhowyouthinkabout 

Krypton–developingthebackstoryasafiction 

thatimpactstheprincipalstory–aslookingat 

the ture of oceans, retail or a nomadic tribe in 

the desert. 

Tell me about your world building exercise, 

Rilao. 

Rilao is a world building test; a hypothetical 

we launched where the DNA of Rio de Janeiro 

and Los Angeles magically combined on an 

island in the Pacific that’s become too small 

for its population. We’ve had a year and a half 

of development: eight or nine schools around 

the world have built projects in Rilao and300 

peopleparticipatedinaone-dayworldbuild.In 

thatspace,1,300storieshavebeendeveloped 

nowandwe’vebarelyscratchedthesurface 

ormodelledit,buttherulesetsareinplace. 

Rilaohasbeenaninterestingproofofconcept 

indevelopinglogicsetsanddiscoveringhow 

afewrulescanrapidlyevolveavirtualworld. 

Especiallyinterestingarethecollaborative 

aspectsofworldbuilding.Multiplepeoplecan 

beinvolvedwithoutthatbeingaconflict,it’s 

actuallyabenefit.Thetensionthatdevelops 

betweentheneedsoftheworldandthe 

demandsofcertainpeopleisareallyhealthy 

tension.Therulesapplyandtheydon’tactually 

fallapart;usuallywhenthey’restressed,theyget 

stronger.Ournextstepistoapplytheprocessto 

real-worldcitiesusingtheprinciplesfromRilao. 

We’llseewhatcandevelopbyputtingstress 

on ture cities and ecology, like rising water 

levels, and what special conditions might evolve 

by examining different aspects. World building 

allows us to reimagine any set of problems. 

What other benefits do you see in applying 

world building methodologies to urban 

planning, architecture and other fields? 

We’re developing methodologies that are 

applicable to different situations, from the 

tureofsportforNiketoMinoriReport 

and Rilao. We’ve learnt to develop characters 

thatentertheworldatthesametimethe 

environmenttheyreacttoisdeveloped.We 

use that notion of fiction as a powerl tool 

to extrapolate forward and design towards 

a certain solution. These exercises – be it 

real-world commercial jobs, filmmaking or 

exploring academic theories – gather people 

around something experiential that allows 

them a human lens to test the design. As 

designers we can place ourselves in the 

situation and become the first users. We’re 

designing with respect to this very powerl 

idea that story is persistent, evolves and allows 

us to extrapolate forward to test spaces and 

design intent now and in the ture. _ 

worldbuilding.institute 

Rilao is a World Building Institute exercise, 

combining the DNA of Rio de Janeiro and 

Los Angeles on an island in the Pacific that’s 

become too small for its population.


Designing 

at

Studio Odile Decq 

Nanjing — China 

161 

a 

Distance 

Odile Decq managed to realize a 

museum in Nanjing over Spe. 

Text 

Femke de Wild 

Photos 

Roland Halbe


Close 

totheciofNanjing,300kmwestof 

Shanghai,liesTangshanPark.Busyurbanites 

canfindsomemuch-neededtranquilli 

hereand,sincerecently,FangshanTangshan 

GeoparkNationalMuseum. The building, 

which looks like it’s part of the landscape, was 

designed by Odile Decq. 

Howdidyougetthecommission? 

ODILE DECQ: It was a closed competition, 

with four architects participating. I went to 

take a look at Fangshan Tangshan Park in 

Nanjing, where the building was going to be 

situated. In 1993, a male and a female skull of 

one of the earliesthomoerectus were discovered 

here and the place has been a major tourist 

attraction ever since. The bones were found in 

a cave in a mountain that borders the park. 

I visited the cave, which was very impressive. 

The location of the building in the park had 

already been determined, but I su≫ested a 

different situation, closer to the archaeological 

site, and therefore more closely connected 

to the mountain. I was given permission to 

execute that plan. 

Is that where the idea for the distinct shape of 

the building came from? 

In the design, I played with the undulating lines 

of the mountain landscape. At first, I wanted to 

situate the museum inside the mountain with 

only the façade sticking out. Unfortunately, 

because of the strict fire regulations in China, 

this wasn’t possible. The building has now been 

designed as if it is separated from the mountain 

by a crack in the earth’s crust. Hence the wall 

at the back of the building. I’ve made the space 

between the building and the mountain as 

narrow as possible; it’s just wide enough to 

allow a fire truck to pass. The landscape 

merges with the building via the ramp on 

the east side, as if the museum is incorporated 

in the landscape. 

Do the horizontal lines in the façade refer to the 

strata of the mountain? 

Yes, they do. This is the first time I ever made a 

stone façade; I mostly work with steel and glass. 

Theclientatfirstwantedthathere,too,butI 

wanted the stone of the mountain to come back 

in the façade. Between the undulating lines of 

the different floors, I placed a large, stone screen 

in front of the windows. I actually tried to work 

with locally produced stone, but that became 

too expensive. In the end, we decided to use 

artificial stone. The façade consists of different, 

irregular shapes. It’s designed in great detail. 

The museum design is very different than your 

previous work. 

I always design in context and carelly 

consider the commission I’m given. As a result, 

my work never becomes gimmic, I don’t use 

a trick. I always start from a narrative and 

though there are certain principles I often use, 

they can take very different shapes. In my 

opinion, every museum, for instance, needs 

a promenade. I took that very literally in the 

Macro museum in Rome (2011), with a long 

walkway across the space. At Tangshang 

Museum, the atrium serves as a promenade. 

The escalators don’t all run to every floor, which 

means you have to walk around the atrium to 

the other side to continue moving up or down. 

This way, people are enticed to look at the space 

from different perspectives.



163 

Decq wanted the museum to be closely connected to the mountain and 

designed a ramp on the east side that merges landscape and building. 

Photo Studio Odile Decq 

HowdidyoulikeworkinginChina? 

Youoftenheararchitectssaythatprojects 

haveturnedoutverydifferentlythanthey 

intended,butmyexperienceswerequitegood. 

ThecontractstipulatedthatIwasallowed 

onlythreetripstothelocationattheclient’s 

expense.WhenIhadtovisittheregionfor 

otherassignments,Icalledinacoupleof 

timesanyway,butmostoftheworkwasdone 

throughSpe. Fortunately I have designers 

from China working at my studio, which 

helped with the communication with local 

architects. A translator oftensatinaswell.We 

spenthoursandhoursSping. The way of 

working is bizarre, but the building has turned 

out exactly as I designed it. 


Was it your first project in China? 

In2006, I was asked to sit on a jury in China. 

When I said I would come, I was asked to 

design a small pavilion. The client sent me a 

layout and two weeks later we sat down at the 

tablewiththefirstsketches.Iturnedouttobe 

the only candidate. For this project, I’ve only 

been on location a couple of times as well. →


Decqmadethedrawingsforthe 

landscapeofthesurroundingpark,but 

alocal par was given the commission 

and subsequently copied her designs. 


‘Themayorendedupinjailandthe 

building was never officially opened’ 

WhenIwassentpictureslater,itturnedout 

everything had been executed exactly as I had 

intended it. Perhaps it went well both times 

because my designs and work are particularly 

detailed. 

It’s a large building, but it looks rather emp 

inside. What’s on show at the museum? 

In China, museums are commercial companies. 

Therefore, the intention was to include many 

different nctions in the building: a cinema, 

a theatre, lots of shops, cafés and restaurants 

and even a research centre. In the end, only the 

theatre was realized and there are some small 

shops. It is indeed rather emp. Apparently, the 

content of the exhibitions is also disappointing. 

Imyselfhaven’tbeenback. 

Whatwentwrong? 

I got the commission in 2011 and the building 

had to be completed in 2014, when the Youth 

Olympic Games would take place in Nanjing. 

But all kinds of political problems came up. The 

mayor ended up in jail on charges of corruption 

and in the end, the building was never officially 

opened. I did try to get the commission for the 

designoftheentireinterior,butthatdidn’t 

work out. Initially, I was also supposed to do the 

landscape design of the park. I’d already made 

the drawings, but the commission eventually 

went to a local par. Who subsequently copied 

my designs almost exactly. Unbelievable that a 

design is copied in this way, but the building 

and park are a whole as a result. 

The cinema was supposed to be in the round, 

red building. Why did you choose such a 

striking element? 

There is a famous legend about Nanjing. The 

area is known for the particularly colourl 

stones that you can come across in the 

landscape. They have deep-red colours and 

are beautilly spherical. Legend has it that in 

prehistoric times, a goddess opened the s and 

madeashowerofcolouredstonescomedown. 

The museum was to also tell this legend, in 

addition to the story of the first homo erectus. 

Why do people visit the region? 

Therearethreetouristattractionsinthe 

mountains that border on the park. In addition 

to the bone sites there are thermal baths, 

apparently with special qualities. Finally, there 

is a display of a special rock. In the 15 th century, 

when Nanjing was the capital of the empire, 

the emperor wanted to hack a rock from the 

mountain that was bi≫er than any other rock 

whatsoever. He got quite a way, but the project 

was never entirely completed. The 20-m-long 

rock in Yangshan Quarry, with a diameter of 

6 × 6 m, has been cut out for the most part and 

is amazing to behold. _ 

odiledecq.com



165 

Bridgesleadfromthemountaintothethirdfloor 

ofthebuilding. The space between the building 

and the mountain is just wide enough to allow a 

fire truck to pass through it.


Toseealllevelsofthebuilding,visitors 

havetowalkaroundtheatriumfrom 

oneescalatortotheother. The space 

thus nctions as a promenade.

64 50 

2 0 

485 

6 

1 



167 

+1 

+3 

01 Entrance 

02 Restaurant 

03 Amphitheatre 

04 Cinema 

05 Shops 

06 Exhibitionspace 

07 Offices 

08 Laboratories 

09 Ramps 

10 Atrium 

10 

10 

06 

09 

06 

07 

08 

0 

+2 


10 

01 

10 


3-a 

05 

04 

06 

N 

Cross Sections

168 Mark 60 Long Section

TNA 

Too — Japan 

169 

Room for 

Observation 

TNA’slatesthouse 

inToo is closely 

linked to the street. 

Text 

Cathelijne Nuijsink 

Photos 

Daici Ano


It 

wasin2006 that I first met Japanese architect 

duo Makoto Takei and Chie Nabeshima of 

TNA. We went on a trip together to visit 

their recently completed Ring House (Mark 

7,page29),aweekendhouseintheforestsof 

Karuizawa. This third built project would boost 

theircareer,andsoonbefollowedbyaseries 

of small-scale projects that were carelly 

crafted out of geographical circumstances. 

In the following years, Takei and Nabeshima 

made consistent progress with small projects 

overseas, but first and foremost garnered 

national recognition. Earlier this year, 11 years 

after starting their own firm, the duo received 

the prestigious Architecture Institute Japan 

Award for their Joshu-Tomioka train station 

(Mark 54, page 30), advancing them from 

‘emerging architects’ to ‘young established 

ones’. Their latest housing project, named 

Between Natsume-zaka, is an ode to the great 

Japanese novelist Natsume Soseki (1867-1916) 

whousedtoliveonthestreetwerethehouse 

is located. In his bookInsideMyGlassDoors, 

he described his personal observations of the 

state of the world outside in a manner that 

resembles the life inside this new Too house. 

What does it mean for you to be the recipient 

of the most prestigious architecture award 

in Japan? 

MAKOTO TAKEI: I see it as only a passing 

point in our career. In Japan, it is said that a 

great architect should work hard and create 

a new pe of architecture. That's exactly what 

we want to do. 

Where does contemporary Japanese 

architecture stand right now? Can you 

distinguish it as having an own identi? 

I feel that most architecture built in Japan 

nowadays lacks spirit and that buildings 

with a genuine Japanese identi are few and 

far between. Born from Japanese economic 

circumstances, a building’s destiny is merely 

to be consumed. How boring. I think we

TNA 

Too — Japan 

171 

When the time comes to widen the 

street, the front half of the house 

will be dismantled. 

needarchitecturethatisabletoremainin 

people’smemories.RyueNishizawaoncesaid 

thatarchitectureinEuropeis‘monumental’. 

WethinkJapanesearchitectureshouldalso 

bemoreopentohistoryandhaveabetter 

connection to the world. We try to achieve this 

by creating buildings that contain some of the 

genesofthesite. 

Your most recent housing project, located 

in Too, is another project born out of its 

geographical destiny. What was at stake? 

The site is located on a street that is scheduled 

to be widened. That means that half of the 

house is on land that will be cleared at some 

stage. We responded to these circumstances 

with a house of which half of the structure 

can be dismantled, leaving the other half of 

the structure intact, without sacrificing the 

architectural concept. People usually opt for 

an entirely new building as soon as a road 

is widened, or they turn the land that is 

scheduled to become the road extension into 

a temporary parking lot. That means that the 

because they are ‘outsiders’, they are better 

at understanding the charm of the ci than 

‘insiders’. The idea of discovering the charm of 

thesiteisveryclosetoourdesignapproach. 

As a reinterpretation of the clients’ concept, 

we arranged a large fixed framework with 

units of 3.6 × 3.6 × 3.6 m. The clients decided 

the number, the height and the position of the 

floors. It turned out to be a space more rich 

than they could ever have imagined. 

This house with its many different small levels 

reminds me of House NA in Too designed by 

Sou Fujimoto (Mark 36, page 148). 

Although we think Fujimoto is close to 

our thoughts in trying to create a new 

environment and a new architecture, there 

are also differences. The lifesle as envisioned 

by Fujimoto in House NA is rather special. 

I believe that housing should not only be 

visually open, but also socially. Our client 

requested a way of living that stands in 

relation to the surroundings. We see the floors 

as raised platforms from which to enjoy the 

‘A great architect should create 

a new pe of architecture’ 

lifespan of those buildings is very short and 

that is exactly the weakness of architecture 

in Japan nowadays. We therefore proposed 

a house with a long lifespan. Because of the 

flexibili of the structure, it will be easy to 

repurpose the spaces. 

Why did you opt for a grid structure? 

Space was our point of departure, rather than 

nction – space that generates a varie of 

uses. We designed a cubical frame made of 

steel that, even when you delete half a span, 

retains its structural capaci. In addition, we 

used a special though simple joint between the 

columns and the beams. When the time comes 

to dismantle the front half, it will be easy to 

separate the beams from the columns. 

Why do you believe this design best fits the 

clients’ lifesle? 

The clients are a couple that moved from the 

countryside to Too. I felt their desire to live 

in the big ci wasn’t just a fad. They were 

really on a mission to beauti the ci and 

explain Too’s charm to the Tooites. Exactly 

neighbourhood. We like to compare them to the 

raised banks of the Kamo River in Kyoto, where 

people gather to appreciate the surroundings. 

What do the residents especially like about this 

house now that they’ve moved in? 

The house feels spacious, even though the living 

areas are small. And the place is bright, with a 

good view. 

Andwhataboutprivacyinthis 

all-glazed house? 

Even with the curtains open, the clients don’t 

have to worry about that too much, since 

the house is elevated above the street. But 

something else is more important. Natsume 

Soseki used to live on this street. In his 1915 

book,InsideMyGlassDoors, he famously 

described the events taking place in the vicini 

of his house, which he watched through 

the glass doors of his study. That’s what the 

residents of this house can also do: observe 

the ci and the people passing by. _ 

tna-arch.com


LeftViewfromthestudy,atthetopof 

thehouse,towardsthebedroom. 

Opposite The house has a steel frame that 

will be easy to dismantle. 

Below By composing the house of small 

square floors with variable ceiling 

heights, an extremely spacious house 

has been created. 

‘The clients were on a mission to beauti the ci’

TNA 

Too — Japan 

173


There are two small apartments that are for 

rent on the ground floor and the first floor.

TNA 

Too — Japan 

175 

SitePlan 

The dotted lines show 

the proposed widening 

of the street. 

+1.5 

05 

06 

Cross 

Section 

04 

+1 


+3 

09 

08 


10 

0 

+2 

01 Rentableunit1 

02 Rentable unit 2 

03 Entrance porch 

04 Dining 

05 Kitchen 

06 Living 

07 Storage 

08 Bedroom 

09 Study 

10 Roof terrace 

01 

07


Reinier de Graaf in the library 

of his home in Amsterdam.

Reinier de Graaf 

Bookmark 

177 

‘I 

no 

longer 

dislike 

my 

profession 

at 

this 

point’ 

OMA-partner Reinier de 

Graaf talks about the role of 

reading and writing within 

the architect’s office. 

Text 

Peter Smisek 

Photo 

Jeroen Musch


enjoyed writing and reading when I was in 

secondary school. From the ages of 12 to 18, 

I read a lot of books and wrote essays and 

reports on them, in multiple languages. 

Strangely enough that was all put on 

hold when I started studying architecture at 

DelftUniversiofTechnologyin1982.Not 

until much later, when I started following 

theory courses, did it come back. Particularly in 

the early years there was a very monomaniac 

attitude that you had to learn to design. There 

was a schism between those who apparently 

I entered the office.Itwassuchawonderl 

mix of theorizing and brutali – I enjoyed 

the clari that emanated from it, irrespective 

of whether I agreed with the positions. If you 

read certain things like ‘The Story of The Pool’, 

which was of course a part ofDeliriousNew 

York, it was an interesting hybrid between 

fiction and the kind of writing you expect to 

encounter in the context of architecture theory. 

It is something I enjoy, but also something 

I try to weave through my own writing: 

reflecting on seemingly weird, meaningless, 

‘When we criticize, people like 

The 

traditional, well-trodden path for an architect 

to get published usually goes like this: design 

a visually appealing project, send a press pack 

to your news outlet of choice, and wait for the 

breathless call from the editor, demanding 

exclusivi and more high resolution images. 

But there is another way . . . 

Which is not to say that Reinier 

de Graaf, a partner at OMA and a director 

of its mythical research arm AMO, has 

not collaborated on a large number of 

photogenic projects. De Rotterdam,G-Star 

RawHeadquarters,theEU’sBarcodeflag,the 

Timmerhuis–allhavegracedthepagesof 

manyaglossymagazine.Buttheexpanding 

arrayofopinioncolumns,essaysandlectures 

thatarepublishedwithDeGraafontheby-line 

isjustasimpressive. 

HavingjoinedOMAin 1996, De Graaf 

has since become one of the most critical 

voices in the industry, with contributions 

to publications ranging from respected 

European dailies and a regular opinion spot 

on the mega-blogDezeen, to more occasional 

contributions to establishment glossies such 

asTheArchitecturalReview andArchitect’s 

Journal. With his pical clari and wit, he 

discusses his trajectory, influences and how a 

commercially successl practice can become 

a mouthpiece of critique aimed at a market 

system within which it flourishes. 

Were you drawn to writing as an architecture 

studentordoesyourinterestinwritingstem 

from an earlier period in your life? Did you read 

a lot of books growing up? 

REINIER DE GRAAF: I wrote a lot and really 

had the natural abili to design and those who 

didn’t, so at the same time that created a kind 

of class distinction at the universi. 

There was so much emphasis on shape, 

on architecture, that the education hardly 

had any room to engage in any intellectual 

pursuits. It’s one of the things that I think 

architecture suffers from as a whole: it’s so 

hermetic and self-obsessed that it neglects 

its context and therefore fails its context. It 

neglects to cultivate any curiosi and fails to 

communicate with its broader surroundings. 

What better way is there to communicate about 

the context than writing? I see a lot of my 

writing as a retroactive correction on what I 

perceive to be one of the greatest shortcomings 

of architecture and also my own education. 

The supreme irony is that writing is something 

I truly love to do and only picked up again after 

being a student. 

What was the difference between the kind 

of literature you read in secondary school 

compared with what you read now? 

They were all novels, often compulsory ones, 

selected by the school. The obligation to read 

these still exists, my eldest son is just about 

to enter that phase of his life, and being a part 

of the internet generation he is dreading the 

whole prospect. But I read and wrote much 

more than the prescribed list. Funnily enough 

Ineverreadthepapersbackthen. 

So which writers or works were influential 

to your career as an architecture student 

and beyond? 

At universi we read Massimo Cacciari and 

Manfredo Tari. At the Berlage Institute, after 

I completed my studies in Delft, I read a lot 

of Jean Baudrillard, Michel Foucault and all 

the philosophers that were being discussed 

in the context of late 1980s and early 1990s 

architecture. Faced with a lack of commissions, 

that’s what a lot of architects spent their time 

doing. Peter Eisenman and the whole American 

scene at the time put a very strong emphasis 

on philosophy and I tried to write that way 

as well. Strangely enough, the person whose 

writing really gripped me at that time was 

Rem [Koolhaas]. This happened well before 

autobiographical details and speculating on 

those experiences to construct a larger vision. 

You joined OMA before AMO was established 

as a separate enti within the office.Wouldyou 

haveeverimaginedthatyou’dbeabletoattain 

apositionwithinthefirmwhereyou’dactually 

havetimetowriteanddoresearch? 

BeforeIjoinedtheofficeIwasunemployed,so 

Ihadn’tbeenthinkingaboutthatatall!I’dhad 

aboutathousandrejectionlettersfromallof 

theofficesIappliedto.Ihadmyownbusiness 

thatstopped,butonceyou’veworkedonyour 

own,no-oneiswillingtohireyoubecausethey 

thinkyou’llleaveatthenearestopportuni. I 

was just happy to have a job. Things have gone 

ahead step by step and I’ve never really thought 

ahead too much. I still don’t. I had an acute 

interest in the side of theofficethatIendedup 

in,andforthatI’mgratel. I no longer dislike 

my profession at this point. 

Who are the writers whose work you enjoy 

reading? 

I like Michel Houellebecq. He’s a terrific writer, 

and I admire him for his directness and fearless 

broaching of subjects that – even in a free 

contemporary world – are hugely contentious. 

He also revisits some prevailing consensuses 

of the20 th century and subjects them to 

rigorous and critical analysis: whether they 

still mean anything under the market economy 

and how the market economy has hijacked the 

sexual and social revolution of the 1960s and 

turned it into something totally dystopian. And 

of course Thomas Pikke’s bookCapitalinthe 

Twen-FirstCentury was a real eye-opener. 

As a partner at OMA, you split your time 

between designing and managing projects, 

lecturing, writing, teaching . . . Do you ever feel 

like you need more focus, or do these diverse 

activities stimulate your writtenoutputin 

certainwaysthatperhapsapurelyacademic 

careerwouldnot?Doyoufeelconstrained 

bythepractice? 

No,no. The experiences within the practice 

feed the writing, inasmuch as the writing 

is based on theorising the experiences. You 

need the practical experiences in a real and


Bookmark 

179 

pressingformtosayanythingmeaningl. A 

lotoftheproblemwitharchitecturetheoryis 

that it projects particular things on a practice 

that the writers themselves do not know and 

haven’t experienced. We’re faced with a very 

schizophrenic situation where those who write 

about architecture do not know practice, and 

those who practice never manage to convert 

theirknowledgeintowritingoranyother 

communicable form.Thatissomethingthatour 

office is trying to bridge, not as an academic 

institution, but simply as an economic enti 

Since the office is so large and influential, it’s 

easy to make the case that we contributed to 

every single disaster that has hit – particularly 

Dutch – architecture. Be that as it may, our 

office is not becoming fragmented and there are 

a fair amount of people that still read our prose. 

It’s a common misconception, but our prose is 

not geared towards any particular form of selfpromotion, 

because as you pointed out, it could 

even be seen as a risk in scaring off potential 

clients. Once the prose becomes overburdened 

by the need for self-advertisement, which 

on the internet. I like it, I can take a lot, and 

I can even agree with some of the comments, 

but they don’t faze me. It’s a kind of carelly 

nnelled hooliganism that is often nice. Also, 

whenIwriteforanonlineoutlet,Idoitina 

way to provoke these kinds of reactions, so 

I take the fact of whether something’s online 

or not into account before I begin. 

Whataboutwritingabookinyourownname? 

I already have a title and a preoccupation 

that about 55 per cent of my written output 

to think it applies to everybody except them’ 

that has to get by and produces thoughts in the 

wake of that. 

What other things besides the office inspire 

and inform your writing? Where does teaching 

come in? 

Teaching is really the same as writing in 

a sense that it gives you space away from 

your primary activi to reflect on it as on 

a theoretical subject. They’reoftenthought 

tobeinopposition,butteaching,aswriting, 

isanadditionalspaceinwhichyoucan 

rther yourself intellectually. In the context 

of any advanced universi class, it’s always 

ambiguous who’s actually teaching who. 

Much of the theoretical output of the office, 

whether it’s your or Rem Koolhaas’s writings 

or various AMO publications, is critical of 

the conditions and constrains imposed on the 

architects by their clients and the neoliberal 

economic system. From a purely business side 

of things, do you think this helps the firm? 

People have asked me this before, even when 

writing reactions and reviews of the things 

I’ve published.‘That’srich,comingfromyou,’ 

they’dsay.Ihavenotyetdiscernedinanyway 

thatitdiscouragespotentialclients.Infact, 

Ibelieveitdoesquitetheopposite.Maybe 

it’stheold-fashioned,romanticnotionof 

thearchitect,thatpeopleexpecthimtobe 

stubborn,criticalanddifficult. I don’t think 

anyofthewritingcomingoutoftheofficehas 

ever discouraged a potential client.The pe 

of clients that we have all aspire to criticali. 

Andevenwhentheydon’t,theyallaspiretobe 

different than their competitors, who might 

also want to engage us. So when we criticize, 

people like to think it applies to everybody 

except them. Even potential clients. 

InoneofyourDezeen columns you wrote that 

asthepracticeofarchitecturebecomesmore 

fragmented, an ever-larger number of eversmaller 

architecture offices produces its own 

rhetoricandtheory,butthatnobodyoutsideof 

architecture listens, marginalizing the position 

of the architect. Do you still feel that way 

given that one could argue that OMA and you 

personally contribute to this phenomenon? 

often happens in smaller offices, then you risk 

becoming the voice in the desert that nobody 

listens to. Our writing serves a very different 

purpose and, I also have to say, is remarkably 

unpretentious. I write in English despite not 

being a native speaker and so does Rem, which 

creates a particular kind of language that can 

sound verbose, but the positions are often 

quite mundane. 

Given the breadth of the work you conduct, 

from research reports and publications by 

AMO, to your personal writings for various 

outlets, I would imagine there’s a world of 

difference in how each of these things are 

approached. 

Thereisaclear difference. Of course we write 

clear, explanatory texts and introductions to 

projectsthatarewrittentoswaytheclientto 

give us the job, and that’s a particular sort of 

writing where you edit a hell of a lot and you 

carelly nnel the reader into the inevitable 

conclusion that you’re the man for the job and 

the answer to all his problems. It is writing as 

a supreme craft, but there is always a hunch 

that is ndamentally honest, otherwise you 

couldn’t write a text like that. Other things 

I write under my name, and I wouldn’t have 

had all these opportunities if I didn’t have the 

position that I have. Nevertheless, writing is 

something ndamentally personal that I do 

and I think people understand that. I have to 

be somewhat carel not to openly damage our 

office’s interests, but there is a lot of leeway. 

In my columns I can be a lot more candid, and 

the whole principle is based on displaying a 

level of candour that you would not expect 

from somebody you think would be speaking 

on behalf of the office. 

What is your opinion on getting feedback on 

your work online? Do you take those comments 

to heart? 

Absolutely. If there ever is a response to a 

column published in a newspaper it’s usually 

someoneelse’scolumn,wheretheywouldnot 

so much criticize your position as much as 

articulating their own position against what 

you’ve written.Thisis ndamentally different 

than the more philistine debate that takes place 

adheresto.Thetitleofthebookisgoingtobe 

TheCenturyThatNeverHappened.It’slargely 

thepositionItookintheessayIwroteforThe 

ArchitecturalReview,basedonPikke’s book 

CapitalintheTwen-FirstCentury, inwhich 

the20 th centuryislargelyseenasaneconomic 

andperhapsaculturalanomaly,withmodern 

architectureasasymptomofthis.However, 

we’reeducatedtobelievethatthosepast 

conditionsareaneverlastingtruth,whichis 

ratherdisconcerting.Iwriteaboutanumber 

of20 th -centuryphenomenainthatbookthat 

simplyseemtohaveevaporatedintothinair 

–thinkofresidentparticipationinthedesign 

oflargehousingprojects,thephenomenonof 

thearchitectascivilservant,orstateprovision 

andplanningofhousing.Nobodyremembers 

themanymore,eventhoughtheywerenormal 

notsolongago,soit’sabookaboutthose 

disappearancesasanction of amnesia, which 

is now, sadly, a part of our reali. _ 


recommends 

Michel Houellebecq,LesParticulesélémentaires, 

Flammarion, Paris, 1998. English translation: 

The Elementary Particles, Alfred A. Knopf, 

New York, 2000 

Jean Baudrillard, Amérique, Grasset, Paris, 1986. 

English translation: America, Verso, 

New York, 1989 

Robert Musil, Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften, 

Rowohlt Verlag, Berlin/Lausanne, 1930-1943. 

English translation: The Man Without Qualities, 

Picador, New York, 1995 

Philip Roth, The Plot Against America, Houghton 

Mifflin Harcourt, Boston, 2004 

Eric Hobsbawm, The Age of Extremes: The Short 

Twentieth Century, 1914-1991, Michael Joseph, 

London, 1994 

ThomasPiketty, Le Capital au XXIe siècle, Éditions 

du Seuil, Paris, 2013, English translation: Capital 

in the Twen-First Century, Harvard Universi 

Press, Cambridge (MA), 2014


Tools

Tools 

181 

‘Hi h 

ener 

rices 

are 

Merckworksonthe 

next-generation of 

solar cells, page 190 

new 

o enin 

rowth 

markets 

for 

renewable 

ener sources’

182 Mark 60 Tools 

Sanitary 

Showerhead 

CloserfromZucchetti 

DiegoGrandidesignedaflexibleshowerhead, 

Closer,forZucchetti. It reinterprets the popular 

image of a showerhead while recalling the 

aesthetics of a lamp. A cylindrical counterweight 

keepstheshowerheadstableinanyposition,atany 

height.Theobjectcanbeadjustedandextended 

simply and intuitively. Each of its three joints 

moves freely and multidirectionally, permitting the 

user to compose numerous spatial configurations 

while controlling and directing the jet of water for 

what Grandi calls ‘a relaxing moment of wellbeing’. 

zucchettidesign.it

Sanitary 

183 

SanitaryRange 

InspirafromRoca 

TheInspiracollectionismadeupofasimple 

andefficientrangeofproductsthataffords 

flexibili of choice.Thepiecesareavailable 

inthreeshapes–round,softandsquare–a 

widevarie for all sles of interior design. 

Inspira toilets represent the new Roca rimless 

generation, with seats and covers made 

from durable Supralit. Basins made from 

Fineceramic have deep, spacious bowls and 

smooth surfaces that make them easy to clean. 

Furniture with exclusive finishes includes 

universal two-drawer vani units designed to 

hold all pes of Inspira basins. 

roca.com 

BathModule 

Vipp982fromVipp 

‘Vipphasbeenallaboutnctional 

productsforbathroomand 

kitchen–eversinceHolgerNielsen 

createdthefirstVippbinin1939. 

Ithasbeenourdreamtoexpand 

ourbathroomlinewithamodule 

thatmatchesouraccessoriesin 

designandnctionali,’ says 

Vipp CEO Kasper Egelund. Made 

of powder-coated stainless steel, 

the Vipp bath module has rubberclad 

handles, a tabletop of DuPont 

Corian, and an integrated tap in 

solid stainless steel, all designed 

by Morten Bo Jensen in a sle that 

complements the rest of the Vipp 

assortment. 

vipp.com


SanitaryCollection 

InofromLaufen 

Ino, a new bathroom line from 

Laufen, is the work of French 

designer Toan Nguyen, who took 

advantage of the possibilities of 

SaphirKeramik, a dense, strong 

and durable material developed inhouse 

by Laufen. Ino is set apart 

by simple lines, elegant shapes 

and soft yet stable walls. One 

remarkable piece is a washbasin 

with seamlessly integrated 

console. Made from Sentec, the 

freestanding Ino bathtub with 

integrated headrest comes in 

two sizes:1700×750 and 1800 × 

800 mm. Also available is a set of 

bathroom rniture. 

laufen.com 

SanitarySeries 

BetteLuxShapefromBette 

OneofBette’s iconic products is BetteLux, 

a steel bath enhanced with a glass-like enamel 

finish. The highlight of its soft curvaceous 

shape is an extra-flat rim. The contours of 

the original bath were invisible following 

installation, because it wasn’t a freestanding 

object. The latest model, BetteLux Shape, is 

exposed on all sides. It is supported by an open 

steel frame which is available in six colours. 

Complementing the bath are a washbasin and 

accessories, all of which embrace the concept 

of ‘framing’ to form a coherent sanitary line. 

bette.de

Sanitary 

185 

BathroomSeries 

CapeCodfromDuravit 

PhilippeStarckdrewinspirationforhisDuravitbathroomseriesfromCape 

Cod,apopularpeninsulaonthenortheastcoastoftheUnitedStates.Countertop 

washbowlshavearoundedformandaremadefromDuraCeram,anewhighgradematerialwitharobustcharacterandaluxuriousfinish.Rimsasthinas 

5mmarepossiblewithDuraCeram.TheCapeCodbathtubalsoreliesonanew 

matte-finished material, DuraSolid A. Options include an integrated air-whirl 

system and/or Bluetooth-compatible sound system. 

duravit.com


Shower-ControlModule 

AxorOnefromAxorHansgrohe 

AxorOne,Hansgrohe’sfirstall-in-oneinteractiveshower-control 

module,istheworkofdesignersEdwardBarberandJayOsgerby, 

whoaimedforsomethingthatwouldbeintuitiveandresponsive 

yetnotclutter the shower with unnecessary controls. The result is a 

system that activates and deactivates water flow by a mere tap. Clear 

symbols indicate specific water outlets: you can choose between 

overhead, hand or side shower. Temperature is set by turning a 

central dial, and a small lever directly below regulates water volume. 

It’s possible to turn multiple water outlets on or off simultaneously. 

hansgrohe.com 

axor-design.com

Sanitary 

187 

ShowerChannels 

CleanLinefromGeberit 

It’s not easy to keep dirt and bacteria 

from accumulating beneath the covers 

of conventional shower channels. 

Geberit’s hygienic CleanLine series 

solves the problem. Water flows directly 

from channel to drain, there are no 

hidden places for dirt to lodge, and the 

channel is easy to detach and clean. 

Installing a CleanLine shower channel 

is uncomplicated, and the accompanying 

kit ensures a securely sealed result. 

Channels can be cut to the size of the 

shower area and can be installed very 

close to the wall or at the centre of the 

space. 

geberit.com 

NewInstallationTechnique 

Glazed-SteelBasinsfromAlape 

Alape developed its first glazed-steel washbasins in1997. 

Anewinstallationtechniqueputsthebasin’s3-mm-thin 

edgeinthelimelight.Thisnarrowedgeprojects25mm 

fromthecountertoporbaseunitofthebuilt-inbasin, 

whilethecoexistingrecessdisappearsbelowthesurface. 

Theresultisnotjustvisuallyinteresting;italsoservesa 

nctionalpurposebyreducingthelossofstoragespace 

and affording a generous and comfortable basin depth. 

alape.com


Toilet 

IdeaSmartWashfromKale 

Kale’s Idea SmartWash WC pan is hygienic and easy to clean.The 

product’srimlessconstructionpreventstheformationofdirtandbacteria. 

Thewall-hungtoiletdispenseswaterfromasmalldistributionareato 

washtheentireinnersurface,thankstothevolumetricweightandspeed 

ofwater.Therimlessdesignandingeniouswashingsystemmeantheuse 

offewercleaningproductsandthusalowerenvironmentalimpact.The 

straightforwarddesignofKale’sIdeaSmartWashWC pan is an attractive 

choice for both private and professional clients. 

kale.com.tr 

Fittings 

CL.1fromDornbracht 

Dornbracht’sCL.1 bathroom fittings combine straight lines with gentle 

curves. Handles come in two finishes, smooth or textured, options in 

keeping with the consumer’s increasing desire for materials with a 

tactile qualiandproductswiththepotentialforindividualization. 

Punctuatingthesprayfaceare40individualjetsofwaterthatyield 

anefficientflowrateofjust3.9 litres per minute. ‘CL’ stands for brand 

slogan ‘Culturing Life’, and the number one refers to the first product 

to emerge from Dornbracht’s new direction in design. 

dornbracht.com

Sanitary 

189 

SanitaryRange 

SileniofromKaldewei 

WiththeKaldeweiSilenioproductfamily,bathandwashbasin 

formaharmoniouswhole.Silenioisdistinguishedbyitssoft 

interior lines.Thebathtub’scharacteristicfeaturesareaflat 

rimthatmeasuresamere20mmandextrasharpcornerradii. 

MatchingSileniowashbasinspickupontheorganicdesignof 

theSileniobath.Flowinggentlyinwardsfrombothsidesare 

linesthatopenoutintoasoft hollow: a lovely contrast to the 

washbasin’s steeply falling rear section and spacious surround, 

which provides plen of room for fittings and accessories. 

kaldewei.com


Mountedwithsteelropes,OPVmodules 

cancreatealightweight,curtain-wall-pe 

of façade that generates electrici from 

sunlight. Blue OPVs were already in use, 

now grey modules are available too. 

Merck 

Converting 

sunlight into 

energy with a 

modern façade 

Climatechangeandhighenergy 

pricesareopeningnewgrowth 

marketsforrenewableenergy 

sources.Photovoltaicsplayakey 

rolehere,makingitpossibletouse 

solarenergyefficiently. Merck, a 

leading science and technology 

company, provides innovative, userfriendly 

materials and formulae 

for today's and the next-generation 

of solar cells. The company is 

dedicated to the development 

of, among other things, organic 

photovoltaics (OPVs). OPVs can 

beappliedinlightweightdevices 

that are entirely compatible with 

modern architecture. After all, 

façades and roofs offerplenof 

space fortheclimate-friendly 

generationofelectricigenerated 

fromsunlight. 

Merckrecentlyannounced 

thatsemi-transparentgreycolouredOPVmodulesarenow 

availableonthemarket.Thenew 

materials,whichweredeveloped 

togetherwithBelectricOPV,were 

presentedtothepublicinOctober 

2015 at the Adaptive Architectures 

and Smart Materials Conference 

in Chicago. The showpiece, 

using grey freeform modules, 

consisted of several laminated 

glass panes mounted with steel 

ropes to create a lightweight, 

curtain-wall-pe façade. This 

offers unlimited design options 

formodernarchitecturalaccents 

while maintaining transparency 

and shape. 

Merck and Belectric 

OPVpreviouslypresentedlively 

blue-coloured OPVs, which were 

already used in installations 

in the German Pavilion at the 

EXPO 2015 in Milan, Italy and 

in the headquarters building of 

the African Union Securi and 

Peace Council in Addis Ababa, 

Ethiopia. Brian Daniels, Head 

of the Advanced Technologies 

business unit at Merck, says: 

‘Many architects indicated that a 

grey colour would significantly 

increase the usage of OPVs in 

building integration. Following 

the installations at the Expo 

in Milan, we set an a≫ressive 

target to develop such a solution.’ 

Ralph Pätzold, CEO of Belectric 

OPV ads: ‘The new grey is a key 

for the wider adoption of OPVs. 

Weareveryproudthat–inthe 

joint effort with Merck – we 

could bring the new material to 

a manufacturing quali in very 

short time.’ 

merckgroup.com

191 

Zeitraum 

Honouring wood with 

minimalistic designs 

AloveofwoodledBirgit 

GämmerlertoestablishZeitraum 

in1990. Gämmerler, who studied 

industrial design, wanted to honour 

wood as a living material with 

her clear minimalistic designs, 

and create rniture that was well 

thought out and ecological but still 

sensual. The company has stayed 

true to its original values and the 

pure material quali continues 

to be its trademark. 

Zeitraum uses only 

healthy, solid hardwood and 

has a sound knowledge of all its 

specific characteristics. At present 

thewoodstheyworkwithare 

primarily oak, ash and walnut. 

The craftsman’s care begins with 

the selection and bringing together 

of individual woods and ends 

with the treatment of the surface. 

All woods used by Zeitraum 

stem from sustainable forests. 

Wood is a renewable resource 

and CO 2 

neutral. Compared with 

other materials its use requires 

thelowestamountofenergy. 

Furniture with an exceptionally 

long lifespan is produced through 

carel design and manufacture. 

The wood surfaces of Zeitraum 

rniture are impregnated with 

pure natural oils. These are 

applied to the precision-ground 

surfaces and then massaged 

in by hand, creating a sil 

smooth, resistant surface. The 

oil impregnates the wood to a 

depth of at least 2 mm during 

this procedure. This natural 

surface treatment is free of 

contaminants. The wood can 

breathe, absorb and release 

moisture, unlike varnished, 

coated wood. The porous surface 

prevents static electrici and 

therefore attracts no dust, which 

is especially important for 

people with allergies. The natural 

colour variations of the wood are 

retained even after the surface 

treatment. 

Zeitraum’s latest products 

clearly illustrate the company’s love 

of wood. The M11 tables, designed 

by Matthias Hahn, shelving series 

3°Regal and the Nonoto and 

Nonoto Comfort chairs are all 

fabricated from solid wood and 

available in various editions. 

zeitraum-moebel.de 

M11 by Mathias Hahn is a small, versatile table and 

combines well with Nonoto and Nonoto Comfort chairs. 

Shelving series 3°Regal is made of 

solid wood without screws or glue 

joints. The new Nonoto and Nonoto 

Comfort chairs are combined here 

with the Cena – hyperelliptical table.

192 Mark 60 Exit 

Exit 

Mark 61 April – May 2016 

KenTakahashi 

JapanesearchitectKenTakahashiadded 

curvedelementstothewoodenframeof 

hisNoritamaHouseinToo,blocking 

directviews,butintroducingnew 

perspectivesandgeneratingspeciallight 

conditions.It’satrick,thearchitectsays, 

togivethesmall,three-storeyhousea 

different kind of largeness, betraying the 

physical limitations. 

Also 

Torun Concert Hall by Menis Aquitectos 

Rivesaltes Internment 

Camp Memorial by Rudy Ricciotti 

And 

An interview with Danish landscape 

architect Stig Andersson

Out Now 

Five formulas for 

future-proof offices 

frameweb.com/frame 

A highlight of Olafur Eliasson's Reality 

Machines exhibition at Moderna Museet 

in Stockholm is published in Frame 108. 

Photo Danica O. Kus

MORPH DUO 

DINING LOUNGE 

& 

KANAPEE & LOUNGE SOFA 

DESIGN BY FORMSTELLE 2015 

zeitraum-moebel.de

Mark Magazine 2016-02-03

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