Raoul Suermondt Viñoly design dynamic urban compositionRafaelViñoly Architects PC was invited to participate in the design of a160,000 sq m mixed-use development in Amsterdam’s Zuidas district, anambitious urban regeneration project approximately halfway between theAmsterdam city center and Schiphol Airport. The master plan mandated aspecific zoning envelope for each building, resulting in a traditionalbase, shaft, and crown structure of high-rise buildings, angled in planto yield a more dynamic urban composition. The firm’s design sought toreinvent this tripartite building structure altogether, unifying thethree tower volumes into one singular, dynamic composition through theuse of an exterior stair and vertical aluminum mullions.Subtracting a narrow, spiral volume from the building mass thatanimates each elevation, the exterior fire escape wraps the structureand enlivens the facades. This staircase provides a fair-weatheralternative to the two elevator cores and creates exterior spaces thatoffice workers can use as informal gathering spaces, or that can beprogrammed as small gardens and outdoor plazas.Furthering a sense of unified mass, the building is clad from top tobottom with glass and clear anodized aluminum fins—materials withsubdued reflective qualities that respond to even the subtlestatmospheric changes in the Dutch weather. As one moves around thebuilding, the spacing of the vertical mullions appears to vary indensity, yielding a dynamic, constantly changing image. The combinedeffect of the external staircase and the ever-changing building skinencourages perception of the building not as a composition of stackedplanes but as a single sculptural element in perpetual motion.Retail space, serviced independently from the main building, is locatedon the ground floor. An enclosed two-story patio, protected from theelements by a glass roof, brings daylight into the center of thebuilding podium on the fourth and fifth floors.The building was completed in the first quarter of 2005.
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