Forum Groningen in The Netherlands by NL Architects

Article source: NL Architects

Forum Groningen is a new multifunctional building in the center of Groningen, a cultural ‘department store’ filled with books and images, that offers exhibition spaces, movie halls, assembly rooms, restaurants. The Forum aspires to become a platform for interaction and debate, a ‘living room’ for the city.

Forum Groningen is NOT a library, NOT a museum, NOT a cinema, but a new type of public space where the traditional borders between these institutes will dissolve. Information will be presented thematically in a way that transcends the different media.

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Deon Prins

• Architects: NL Architects with ABT Engineering
• Project: Forum Groningen
• Location: Groningen, The Netherlands
• Photography: NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg, NL Architects&ABT © Deon Prins
• Software used: Revit, Autocad, Rhinoceros, 3dS Max, Adobe
  
• Client: Municipality of Groningen
  
• Delegated Client: TwynstraGudde
  
• Design Team: (NL Architects) Pieter Bannenberg, Kamiel Klaasse, Walter van Dijk, Thijs van Bijsterveldt, Florent Le Corre, Sören Grünert, Iwan Hameleers, Sybren Hoek, Kirsten Hüsig, Mathieu Landelle, Zhongnan Lao, Barbara Luns, Gert Jan Machiels, Sarah Möller, Gerbrand van Oostveen, Giulia Pastore, Guus Peters, Jose Ramon Vives, Laura Riaño Lopez, Arne van Wees, Zofia Wojdyga, Gen Yamamoto with Christian Asbo, Nicolo Bertino, Jonathan Cottereau, Marten Dashorst, Rebecca Eng, Antoine van Erp, Tan Gaofei, Sylvie Hagens, Britta Harnacke, Jana Heidacker, Sergio Hernandez Benta, Johannes Hübner, Yuseke Iwata, Cho Junghwa, Linda Kronmüller, Jakub Kupikowski, Katarina Labathova, Ana Lagoa Pereira Gomes, Qian Lan, Justine Lemesre, Amadeo Linke, Fabian Lutter, Rune Madsen, Phil Mallysh, José Maria Matteo Torres, Victoria Meniakina, Shuichiro Mitomo, Solène Muscato, Lea Olsson, Pauline Rabjeau, Thomas Scherzer, Michael Schoner, Martijn Stoffels, Jasper Schuttert, Bartek Tromczynski, Carmen Valtierra, Elisa Ventura, Benedict Völkel, Vittoria Volpi, Murk Wymenga, Qili Yang, Yena Young, Alessandro Zanini.

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

• Architectural Engineering: ABT with NL Architects
  
• Interior Design: NL Architects i.c.w.: deMunnik-deJong-Steinhauser, &Prast&Hooft, Tank, Northern Light.
  
• Building Engineer (incl Geotechnical): ABT
  
• Structural Engineer: ABT
  
• Building Costs: ABT
  
• Building Physics, Acoustics and Safety: DGMR
  
• Technical Installations: Huisman en van Muijen HVM
  
• Acoustics: Peutz
  
• Contractor: BAM
  
• Seismic engineering: ABT i.c.w. BORG & BAM Advies & Engineering
  
• Art in Parking: Nicky Assmann
  
• Size: 17,000 m2 +10,000 m2 parking area
  
• Design: 2006 (Competition, 1st prize)
  
• Completion: 2019
  

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Deon Prins

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Deon Prins

The building is designed as single clear volume to express the desire for synergy, to strengthen the shared ambition to combine different facilities into one new compound. A series of careful cuts nails the building on its site and generates a multitude of different appearances.

Forum Groningen features an exceptional central space, an innovative atrium that with its horizontal ‘tentacles’ forms the pumping heart of the venue. The void works as a spatial interface that binds all functions, movie theatre, book collection, expo, auditorium, and as such hopes to catalyze the exchange of knowledge and ideas.

A series of stacked ‘squares’ emerges that can be experienced as the continuation of the network of open spaces in the city of Groningen. The vertical squares are publicly accessible and provide entry to the ticketable activities. The specific layout offers continuously changing perspectives on the surrounding city and culminates in the roof terrace, a viewing platform and outdoor theater.

Forum Groningen has been engineered “to accommodate finding not searching”. The design stimulates exploration. It hopes to catalyze the desire to wander, to ‘browse’ endlessly through a staggering interior landscape.

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects&ABT © Marcel van der Burg

Image Courtesy © NL Architects

Image Courtesy © NL Architects

Image Courtesy © NL Architects

Image Courtesy © NL Architects

Image Courtesy © NL Architects

Image Courtesy © NL Architects

Image Courtesy © NL Architects

Image Courtesy © NL Architects

Image Courtesy © NL Architects

Tags: Groningen, The Netherlands

Categories: 3dS Max, Adobe, Autocad, Building, Building Campus, Cultural Center, Exhibition, Filmtheater, Multipurpose Hall, public spaces, Restaurant, Revit, Rhinoceros, space, STORE

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