VU UNIVERSITY BUILDING, AMSTERDAM
NEW TOPOLOGY | INTELLIGENT INTENSIFICATION | DENSITY | SPATIAL CONTINUITY | SUSTAINABLE | ENERGY EFFICIENT | SOCIAL COHESION | MA-SSA MEANINGFUL EMPTINESS
Location
Amsterdam
Description
University building for eduction and research, in collaboration with OeverZaaijer
Client
Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam
Completion
Unbuilt
MAKING CONNECTION
The objectives of the new VU University campus also provided the point of departure for the new VU University building. The primary goal is to stimulate contact and interaction among the education programmes, students and teaching staff — and between the campus and city. Encounters therefore play a key role in the organization of the education and office building, which is designed as a communal study room.
Forming the heart of the new VU campus is the campus square, which extends indoors like an urban carpet, drawing the urban space inside. The invitingly open plinth contains a canteen, café, cinema and small shops, while activities are showcased in the foyer, study landscape and lecture rooms.
Higher up, the building is more closed: the floors are organized around a number of atriums that draw light deep into the volume. Broad flights of stairs around the central atriums form a helix that connects the upper floors with one another.
The space around the fixed cores on the floors can be freely arranged, so that in the future the building can be used in a totally different way. Through routes terminate in the roof gardens, where people can relax in green surroundings during a break or after a long period of study or work.
