A strong online presence may often signal an operational management that’s modern and customer-friendly, nothing beats a brick and mortar shopping experience. But obviously, only if it ticks all of the boxes. When Ace & Tate launched in Amsterdam five years ago, the eyewear company’s initial focus was online retail, and although that has very much remained, there’s a growing emphasis on physical retail. Following the opening of stores on home turf, Ace & Tate is now present in a string of cities across the Old Continent, including coveted shopping destinations such as London, Antwerp, Stockholm, Berlin, and Vienna.
The construction of Tower Ten, the new expansion of the World Trade Centre Amsterdam, officially began last week at a Ground Breaking Ceremony launched by deputy director Sandra Thesing of the City of Amsterdam and Ronald van der Waals of CBRE Global Investors, the Fund Manager of the Fund that owns the building in the Zuidas central business district.
Since gaining planning approval from the city last year, the site has been decanted and prepared ready for part demolition and reconstruction. Much of the structure and slabs of the existing facility will be re-used, though Tower Ten will present a radically different appearance from its predecessor, adding 32,000 sqm of new office space and amenities in the process.
The original World Trade Center was built in the 1980s as a rational sequence of gridded blocks of concrete frame and glazed curtain walling. A thorough refurbishment of the four original towers, as well as a substantial extension to the campus, were completed over a decade ago by the design team led by Ron Bakker and Lee Polisano of PLP Architecture. PLP has now returned to the campus to deliver the third major iteration in the history of the Center’s development.
Stibbe headquarter’s urban context is characterized by the variety of spheres and different scale levels: to the east, the location is a continuation of Amsterdam’s South Axis, whereas the north side is mainly characterized by the A10 highway. On the west side the Beethoven Street is the main route to the city centre while the east side is literally situated in the Beatrix Park.
Characteristic of the urban design by Danish Henning Larsens are the organic footprints. This visual language allows for the park to find continuation around the buildings and to be visible and palpable from the Beethoven Street. The flowing lines of the romantic, classic English garden like Beatrixpark, find continuation in the architectural appearance.
The Asian Art housed in the Rijksmuseum forms an autonomous collection with splendid pieces, works of art that neither can easily be located within the chronological tour of the permanent collection of the Rijksmuseum, nor do they relate well to the architecture of the nineteenth century building. The goal was to design a separate building for the collection, the Asian Pavilion.
Photography: Duccio Malagamba, Arie de Leeuw, Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos, Eran Oppenheimer, Erik Smits, Iwan Baan, Jannes Linders, Jose Manuel Ballester, Luuk Kramer, Pedro Pegenaute
In our current day and age, we all are searching for a unique place; a place where there is always something going on, where people can enjoy the good things in life, and where everyone is invited to have and share experiences. This place is not home or the workplace, but a kind of special ‘third place’ located somewhere between public and domestic, where everyone is welcome.
Commissioned by Synchroon, Orange Architects has designed an all-in-one school and 190 apartments on the site of the existing SITA office on Heathrowstraat in Amsterdam. The project, Called Floating Gardens, made with the city of Amsterdam, proposes an integral development with a school in the plinth and 190 apartments above.
The area around Sloterdijk station is rapidly transforming from an office district into a mixed-use residential and office district. Sloterdijk Centre will form the heart of a large-scale area development called Haven-Stad.
Advisors: IMd BV, Merosch, M+P, IGG bouweconomie, BK ingenieurs
Team: Patrick Meijers, Jeroen Schipper, Gloria Caiti, Kapilan Chandranesan, Adriano Cirigliano, Casper van Leeuwen, Manuel Magnaguagno, Francesco Mainetti, Erika Ruiz, Elena Staskute, Florentine van der Vaart, Angela Park, Eric Eisma
Klencke (or Terras op Zuid) is a residential complex with a distinctive stepped profile that provides supersized outdoor spaces with a spectacular orientation.
Klencke contains 50 units and will soon go up on the so-called Zuidas. The Zuidas is the CBD of Amsterdam; a point of gravity that absorbs financial institutions, law firms and related services, the La Defense or the Canary Wharf of the Netherlands.
Klencke is strategically located at the border of the inner city: a 5 minute walk from an elegant shopping center, a 5 minute bike ride from the economic heart and 5 minute drive from the highway. Work, sports, recreation: all within reach. The nearby station brings you in no time to the airport.
The site is somewhat hidden alongside a lush canal that is part of the ‘ecological framework’ of the city: an unexpected green oasis.
Architects: NL Architects (Pieter Bannenberg, Walter van Dijk, Kamiel Klaasse)
Project: Klencke
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Photography: Marcel van der Burg
Team: Gerbrand van Oostveen with Bobby de Graaf, Kirsten Hüsig, Katarina Labathova, Laura Riaño Lopez, Gert Jan Machiels, Giulia Pastore, Elsa Snyder, Jose Ramon Vives, Gen Yamamoto
Landscape Architecture / Planting: Jos van de Lindeloof
With origins as a highway-centric motel chain for travelers by automobile; Van der Valk is an international company, whose roots are Dutch, and whose hotels are almost always sited adjacent to highways, providing standard lodging and dining for those traveling long distances by car. Seeking to reposition itself in the Dutch market, while spurring a renewal of its image; the chain, long known for its hotels sited in-between major Dutch cities, will add a new location to their portfolio of properties, with a 26.000 m2 hotel in Amsterdam. Situated along the southern edge of the ring highway that encircles the city–the A10–the new hotel encompasses circa 240 rooms, several cafés and restaurants, a meeting center, congress hall, spa and wellness center, and a plethora of terraces offering views out over Amsterdam. Because the hotel is steps away from the city’s convention center–between the business district and ‘Old South’ neighborhood of the city, constructed just before the 1929 Olympic Games–the hotel is connected to the city through numerous bus, metro, and tram lines. The nearby train station, will also allow guests to easily explore the Netherlands, beyond Amsterdam. Standing at a height of 55 m, the hotel has 15 floors, which, in a nod to its storied motel history, positions it in prominent view of those driving on the adjacent highway.
Article source: BETA office for architecture and the city
Boat Hangar is a contemporary utilitarian building, both subtly referencing and sharply contrasting the rich context of the historic NDSM shipyard.
BETA was charged with designing a utilitarian structure on one of the few remaining plots on the NDSM heritage site. It is used for storage, seasonal maintenance and the construction of new yachts. In addition the building offers office space and is occasionally in use for location theatre and other cultural events at the NDSM shipyard. The challenge was to find a suitable architectural language which would do justice to brief and context whilst fitting in a competitive budget.
Atelier PRO’s design for IJburg College 2 in Amsterdam was selected as part of a European tender. IJburg College 2 is a new secondary school that will accommodate approximately 800 students at VMBO-T and HAVO levels. The aim is to realise a ‘High Tech Green’ school that fits well with this site.
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