Description

The developer of this office building is the Dutch technology company Edge Technologies, a subsidiary of the property conglomerate OVG Real Estate, which focuses on combining the design of sustainable office buildings with the use of new technologies. What’s different about this project is that the Edge Olympic office building, situated not far from the 1928 Amsterdam Olympic Stadium, is a conversion. Located in the Amsterdam-Zuidas business district in the south of the city, it lies exactly between the city centre and Schiphol Airport. The office building, which dates back to the nineties, has been expanded with two new floors, one on top and one over the car park to the east. A new façade lends the whole a uniform appearance: the existing load-bearing façade was strengthened with a steel construction around the outside, replacing the small window openings with large, floor-to-ceiling openings. At first glance, little can be seen of the former building.

One enters the building via the only entrance on the northwest side into an open office landscape befitting a hip tech company. The heart of the building is a large atrium with skylight crossed by a long, tiered, and slightly skew staircase that provides access to all floors with the exception of the top floor. The reasoning here was to allow as much daylight into the building as possible but means that to reach the top floor one must take the lift or use the escape stairs.

As part of the conversion planning, a BIM model of the entire building was created along with a comprehensive material ‘passport’. This digital duplicate is intended to simplify the future reuse of building components.

Apart from the sanitary facilities, circulation cores and escape staircases, there are only a few insertions with fixed walls. Instead, the open floor areas are largely subdivided using furniture or with glass walls. This sense of openness is heightened by two double-height spaces adjoining the south-facing façade between the ground and first floors and between the third and fourth floors.

The open structure of the interior is notable in that the developer is not the sole occupant, but one of five tenants using the building. The Swedish company Epicenter, for example, provides various coworking variants for its members on several levels. To offer the users ideal working conditions regardless of where they are seated or working, intelligent ceilings were installed that incorporate sensor-controlled cooling, heating and lighting, making it possible to respond flexibly to different user needs. Everything can be operated via a smartphone app so that workplace conditions can be individually adjusted. The app can also show free workplaces in the building or locate other colleagues in the building (if they have enabled this function).

The Epicenter is designed according to a “Multispace” concept in which users are free to choose from different workstations on several floors that have no fixed allocation: group work tables of various sizes, small work cabins, a forum staircase and sofa corners. Electrical supplies and wi-fi also make it possible to work outside on the south-facing terrace that offers a view of the neighbouring Begraafplaats Buitenveldert cemetery. A canteen on the third floor with an adjacent roof terrace provides a lunch space to step away from work. The building was sold shortly after completion and Edge Technologies occupies the top floor.

Originally published in Bauwelt 16.2019, pp. 28-33, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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