AMTRIUM AMSTERDAM RAI BY BENTHEM CROUWEL ARCHITEKTEN

Amsterdam RAI is continuing to invest in sustainable innovation to strengthen its position as an internationally leading exhibition and conference centre.

With the design of a new building on the Scheldeplein square, a multifunctional and remarkably sustainable office and conference centre with restaurant will be added to the RAI’s premises. 

The design explicitly takes into account that the latest addition to the RAI is compatible with the existing complex and has a connection to the Scheldeplein as well. By its transparent plinth façade the Amtrium creates new interaction between the RAI and the residential area that surrounds the complex.

The addition of a public, high quality, restaurant also contributes to the culinary and entertainment value of the district. The development of the compact building will include the most sustainable technologies available. By means of a climate zone with plants (greenhouse), air gets preheated with warmth of the sun while air from the congress areas is drained.

Rainwater is collected and used for irrigation of the plants. Elevators, installations and emergency stairs are all integrated in the climate zone. The atrium takes care of air disposal from the offices and is connected to the climate zone in one sustainable climate-concept.

It uses waste heating systems in combination with thermal storage and cogeneration. In the summer heat and in the winter cold, is stored and waste heat is converted into electricity. All installations are energy efficient and make maximum use of renewable sources.

For lighting, daylight is used as much as possible by the orientation of the building, the geometry of the façade, and the atrium in the heart of the office facilities. The atrium and other main vertical openings (the greenhouse and a void in the foyer) create spaciousness and grandeur, appropriate to the ambition of Amsterdam RAI.

The RAI hopes to be the first in the Netherlands to achieve the BREEAM-NL Excellent level, a hallmark for sustainability that is managed by the Dutch Green Building Council (DGBC).

Location: Amsterdam, Holland

Architect: Benthem Crouwel Architekten

Building process: Res & Smit

Engineering: agencies Nelissen

Gross floor area: 9.000 m²

Start design: 2011

Start construction: 2013

Completion: 2015

Client: Amsterdam RAI

ROTTERDAM CENTRAL STATION OPENS IN 2014

The Rotterdam's  new station is taking shape and its official opening is scheduled for March 2014. Rotterdam Central is part of the European network of high-speed railway lines and a nodal point in the city itself.

This dual relationship, with the city and with Europe, gives the station and the station precinct a special dimension.

At Rotterdam Central, European travellers enter the Netherlands and Dutch travellers enter Europe. The old station by Sybold van Ravesteyn was out of step with current requirements with respect to size, layout and grandeur.

What was needed was a new station, designed as one entity: the station hall now runs from Proveniersplein on the north side to Stationsplein on the south – in other words, the 250-metre-wide platform roof forms a whole with the main concourse and the train travellers’ tunnel.

The result is that from the moment of arrival, train passengers have the sense of entering a building. A salient feature of the location is the big difference in character between the areas north and south of the station.

To the north there is a residential area. Here the new station roof makes a modest and transparent impression.

On the city centre side the station exhibits a new grandeur that is in keeping with the dimensions of the imposing high-rise buildings that characterize the entrance to the city.

On entering the tall light-filled station concourse, travellers have an overall view and see at once where the trains are. The sunken and widened passage beneath the tracks is a natural continuation of the concourse. Platforms have a largely transparent roof some 250 metres long spanning the entire track zone.

The entrance on Spoorsingel is a modest one in keeping with the low-key residential area there and the smaller passenger flow. In stark contrast, the tall glass and timber concourse on the city side is clearly the main gateway to the metropolitan city centre.

The new building's shape expresses the internal logistics of this transport hub. Marking the onset of Rotterdam's 'cultural axis', the new Grand Central Station points the way to the city's heart.

Location: Rotterdam, Holland
Architect: Team CS (a collaboration between Benthem Crouwel Architects, MVSA Meyer en Van Schooten Architecten and West 8)
Integral station roof: 30,000 m2

Gross floor area: Ca. 67,000 m2
Year Costruction: 2008—2014
Client: Gemeentewerken Rotterdam, Prorail

Photo: Jannes Linders

MALL FORUM MITTELRHEIN BY BENTHEM CROUWEL ARCHITECTS

The mall, located in the heart of Koblenz, consists of 20,000 m2 floor space for commercial functions, , more space for cultural and tourism purposes and an urban square of 6.000 m2.

There is a food court on site and there are over 80 stores. The shopping center, together with the Kulturbau, are a part of the redevelopment of the central square of Koblenz.

The square, Zentralplatz, not only connects the different districts of Koblenz with each other, but also has an important function as a public transport hub and as a place where different pedestrian flows come together.

The Kulturbau will serve a multitude of cultural users and tourist functions, including a museum, the tourist office and a library. The mall Forum Mittelrhein presents itself as a flat, horizontal layered structure.

On relevant junctions within the urban fabric, the mall offers spacious entrances and invites visitors to follow the pedestrian flows and to ‘glide’ through the building.

The shopping center is characterized by its trapezoidal layout and smooth outlines. The areas intertwined with escalators provide orientation points, divide the building and provide the interior with natural light.

This, in combination with the great spaciousness, gives a high-level of amenity and a pleasant ambience for the user. Across the intense colors of the void edges, powerful accentuations are applied that create a vivid image.

The top three floors of the building are dominated by an artificial "Weinlaub façade" (wine leaf façade). The basis of the structure is an abstract image of a vine leaf, which is interpreted freely as a 3D-shape.

The entire façade is composed out of only one type of element, that is produced in large quantities and high quality in an industrial thermoforming process.

Approximately 2,900 identical, three-dimensional shaped aluminum elements, painted in three different shades of green, form this distinctive façade.

 

 

 

 







Location:Koblenz, Germany

Architect: Benthem CrouwelArchitekten

Gross floor area: 42.500 m²

Parking:25.000 m²

Year: 2012

Client: ECE Projektmanagement GmbH & Co. KG

Photos: Jens Kirchner

ROTTERDAM CENTRAL STATION BY MVSA

This coming Thursday, March 13th, Rotterdam Central Station will officially be opened by King Willem-Alexander. Rotterdam Centraal Station is the first of a series of large train stations that will soon be opened in Holland.

The design by Team CS (a co-operation between MVSA Meyer en Van Schooten Architecten, Benthem Crouwel and West8) took 5 years to be built. During the construction phase the station was kept fully functioning.

The new station hall, with an impressive height of 30m up into the sky and cladded with stainless steel, reaches out into the city. Open and transparent in guides travellers to the new 48m wide passenger tunnel.

The glass roof stretches over the all the tracks, 156m wide and 250m long, and is covered with 10.000m2 of PV-cells. Rotterdam Central is part of the European network of high-speed railway lines and a nodal point in the city itself.

This dual relationship, with the city and with Europe, gives the station and the station precinct a special dimension. At Rotterdam Central, European travellers enter the Netherlands and Dutch travellers enter Europe. The old station by Sybold van Ravesteyn was out of step with current requirements with respect to size, layout and grandeur.

What was needed was a new station, designed as one entity: the station hall now runs from Proveniersplein on the north side to Stationsplein on the south – in other words, the 250-metre-wide platform roof forms a whole with the main concourse and the train travellers’ tunnel.

The result is that from the moment of arrival, train passengers have the sense of entering a building. A salient feature of the location is the big difference in character between the areas north and south of the station. To the north there is a residential area.

Here the new station roof makes a modest and transparent impression. On the city centre side the station exhibits a new grandeur that is in keeping with the dimensions of the imposing high-rise buildings that characterize the entrance to the city.

Rotterdam’s urbanity is reinforced here by a metropolitan station architecture in which the building and the new station square merge. Here the station roof folds to create a welcoming and very spacious station concourse, which also provides direct access to the new metro station below.

When the train drives into the station, there is an almost tangible feeling of being enshrouded in the station building. Upon entering in the bright high hall through the center side, the traveler gets an overview of the entire complex and a view to the trains that are waiting invitingly along the platforms.

Location: Rotterdam, Holland
Architect: Team CS (a collaboration between Benthem Crouwel Architects, MVSA Meyer en Van Schooten Architecten and West 8)
Integral station roof: 30,000 m2
Gross floor area: Ca. 67,000 m2
Year Costruction: 2008—2014
Client: Gemeentewerken Rotterdam, Prorail
Photo: Jannes Linders