An environmentally friendly example house, connected to its surrounding landscape. The outcome of a close triangular collaboration between the clients, the architects + the construction engineer and the various manufacturers.
When older houses are preserved, it is often because of their recyclability. They have high ceilings, daylight, large rooms and wide doors. But there is one more important reason why we don’t demolish them. We love them, because their architecture is good and because they are made of beautiful materials. Preserve your house, or make a new one with a high long term value, and you make your house more environmentally friendly. By not only looking at the cost of the total investments, but being aware of the monthly costs, sustainable solutions become feasible.
The‘homes of the future’,previously the stuff of fantasy exhibited only in World’s Fairs and science fiction, are increasingly becoming a reality. Automation and connectivity are making it possible for today’s smart homes to integrate information technologies through which systems and appliances are able to communicate in an integrated way, resulting in vastly increased convenience, energy efficiency, safety and security.
The design assignment for the Gerrit Rietveld College consists of the new build of a secondary school with sporting facilities for about 1200 pupils, and for a smaller part of social and commercial facilities for the neighborhood. The new build is situated in the leafy district of Tuindorp, at the eastern side of Utrecht. The plot is bordered by a public greenbelt, a through-road – the Eykmanlaan with a new parallel road – a slow traffic route, a newly to be developed residential district, and to the north at some distance, a railway.
Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport is the first Hyatt Place in Europe and leads the way in renewable energy. A deep thermal storage system provides heating and cooling for the building. A central pump is connected to a hot and cold-water source, which supplies either warm water up to 45 degrees Celsius for heating or cold water for cooling the building.
Level is located adjacent to Leiden Central Station. Level is a building that houses a variety of organizations including the new ROC Leiden (regional training centre), a commercial hotel and a care hotel, and a fitness club and wellness centre with a swimming pool.
In the heart of Amsterdam’s Red Light District, architecture office XML has designed a store saturated in white light. The store called ‘HIC’sells bottled water and ‘Reset’, a specially developed drink that mitigates the negative effects of too much alcohol consumption such as a hangover.
The new building for the Montessori School Waalsdorp makes up part of the “school triangle” in the city’s Benoordenhout district. Designed by De ZwarteHond, the school blends in well with the neighbourhood, while maintaining a unique presence. Its spacious and flexible interior forms a dynamic accommodation perfectly suited to the Montessori education system.
For its latest completed project, Powerhouse Company has renovated an iconic Rotterdam office building. The architect started by turning the entrance into a crossover between a hotel lobby, restaurant and coffee bar.
Construction of the museum district C-City, designed by Shift Architecture Urbanism, has started in Kerkrade, Netherlands. Two new public facilities, Cube and Columbus, will be added to the existing, highly successful Discovery Centre Continium. With these additions, Kerkrade, a town at the Dutch-German border, will host the first design museum in the Netherlands, the first inverse planetarium in Europe as well as a wide range of new amenities for the public. Shift Architecture Urbanism’s design is an urban ensemble defined by clearly recognizable volumes, all connected by a vast, underground public space. C-City will mark the entrance into Kerkrade for both train passengers and visitors arriving by car from the main access road. The new museum quarter will open its doors at the end of 2015, with a total budget of 20,5 million Euro.
A site in a pine forest with a height difference of six meters is unique in the Netherlands. The clients are aware of that and asked us to design a ‘living’ house which fully adopts the qualities of the plot. They cite three icons as a reference, each with their own qualities. De scenic naturalness of F.L. Wright, the openness of Mies van der Rohe and the tactile materiality of Zumthor. With a sense of necessary modesty we accepted the assignment.
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