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modern architecture
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Friday, 28 March 2008 20:38 |
The inner courtyards often hide unexpected surprises – from exotic gardens to massive halls and hangars. In one of such courtyards in Amsterdam, along a blind road, there is a group of stand-alone buildings of different kind and age. What happens when a group of conceptual radicalism leaders (Nikki Gonnissen + Thomas Widdershoven = Thonik) decide to set up an office?
They decide that it is possible to add another context to the nothing suspecting one. On the request of the advertising and graphic-designer studio Thonik the MVRDV studio established in 1991 in Rotterdam designed it. A simple two-floored block was finished and in all its orange beauty opened ten years later, in 2001, after realizations such as the Dutch pavilion on EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Calveen offices in Amersfoorte or the fairy-tale like colourful housing estate Hageneiland in Ypenburg – the Hague.
As to its dimension, it does not noticeably disturb the surrounding compositional mixture. The only thing which could hypothetically disturb the atmosphere of the courtyard space is the bright colour painted on the surface of the studio. There occurred a hitch straight at the beginning. The hitch was which of the two typical colours of the studio to pick – the orange or the grass-green one. Although the first choice was the orange one, there is a bright green dwarf standing out among the greyish blocks now.
The construction is equally simple as the form. The walls are made of concrete, the floors and the roof of prefabricated concrete slabs. The facade, the roof and the accessories on the roof (a round swimming pool in the manner of a jacuzzi and a table-tennis/picnic table) are wrapped in a polyurethane case.
Studio Thonik consists of one large open working space on the ground floor and a private studio on the first floor. The floor on the first floor rises at two places by half a meter and so creates three physically and visually separated spaces and changes the interior of a shoe box to a sophisticated spatial experience. All ground-floor doors and glass walls are placed at the same level as opposed to the first-floor windows which copy the two floor risings. The only thing which can not be seen from downstairs is the balcony on the north side situated on the highest level.
The only reason why the colour of this building was changed was the pressure of the residents living in the surrounding apartment houses who claimed that this colour caused them major difficulties. I quote: “The doctor recommended to me not to let my attention get caught by it. It only brought inner unhappiness to me. The orange colour supposedly causes something to me. Verily, my eyes do not cause me any pain, but it hurts my mind.” The residents also tried to have the incident shown on TV, in the press and also tried to bring it to trial. “People always say how beautiful Amsterdam is.” says Winy Maas, one of the MVRDV members. “You know, we wanted to point out to a different kind of beauty. If it causes too much critique and anger, so be it. I can`t say it makes me worried. You can tell us to put the record straight but that would mean that the building has achieved exactly what was wanted.”
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Project: Studio Thonik
Architect: MVRDV
Setting: Weesperzijde 79d, Amsterdam, Holland
Realization: 2001
www: www.mvrdv.nl/_v2/ http://www.thonik.nl/
photo: http://www.metropolismag.com/html/content_0503/mvr/index.html
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