A new mixed-use building that will house Rotterdam’s municipal offices and the Museum Rotterdam, conceived by the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) – is complete, and opens today to the press and tomorrow to the public.
Situated in the city’s Laurenskwartier neighborhood, fifty percent of Timmerhuis is occupied by office space; the rest contains residential, retail, parking and the museum. Its innovative structural system allows for adaptability, while providing the city with a large public space on the ground floor.
Reinier de Graaf: “We are very proud of Timmerhuis. Rather than adding another grand statement to Rotterdam’s ecology of successive architectural convictions, the typical mass of Timmerhuis seeks to subtly negotiate between the architectures of the buildings surrounding it.”
Timmerhuis is the only mixed-use building in the Netherlands to have achieved the BREEAM level of excellence, the highest score for sustainability. OMA conceived a modular building with repeated units gradually set back from the street as they rise into two irregular peaks.
The building’s composition of smaller cells creates an impressive, complex form when viewed from Coolsingel, one of Rotterdam’s main arteries, and allows for subtlety and adaptability as the new building meets the Stadstimmerhuis (a municipal building, from 1953), which surrounds it on two sides.
The Timmerhuis’s innovative structural system generates maximum efficiency and versatility both in construction and in program: units can adapt to either office space or residential parameters as desired. Green terraces on higher levels provide the possibility of an apartment with a garden in the heart of urban Rotterdam.
On the street level, the structure allows for generous open space, with modules overhanging rather than encroaching into an interstitial area, encouraging an active and open engagement between the Timmerhuis and the city. The design brief stipulated that the Timmerhuis must be the most sustainable building in the Netherlands.
OMA tackled this imperative through the building’s core concept of flexibility, and also through the two large atriums, which act like lungs. They are connected to a climate system that stores warmth in summer and cold in winter and releases this energy as warm or cold air as required. The building’s triple glazed curtain wall facade uses hi-tech translucent insulation that allows for unprecedented energy efficiency.
Rather than being yet another statement in Rotterdam’s crowded history of revisionist planning and cacophony of architectural styles, the ambiguous mass of the Timmerhuis tries to mediate between the existing buildings surrounding it. The axis between the existing town hall and the post office coincides with the axis of symmetry of the Timmerhuis, and the street between these two buildings continues into a passageway to the Haagseveer.
The Timmerhuis integrates with the neighboring Stadtimmerhuis by maintaining the same floor heights, while the plinth height of 20m conforms to the character of the surrounding Laurenskwartier. Source by OMA.
Location: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Architects: OMA
Area Site: 0.5 hectares
Building Height: 60m
Client: Stadsontwikkeling Rotterdam
Partner in charge: Reinier de Graaf
Associate in charge: Alex de Jong, Katrien van Dijk
SCHEMATIC DESIGN
Partner in charge: Reinier de Graaf
Associate in charge: Alex de Jong
Project leader: Mark Veldman
Team: Philippe Braun, Tom Tang, Andrew Linn, Peter Rieff
DESIGN DEVELOPMENT (Core & shell and interiors offices)
Partner in charge: Reinier de Graaf Associate in charge: Alex de Jong
Project architect: Cock Peterse
Team: Philippe Braun, Jorge Campos, Elle Gerdeman, Sebastian Janusz, Debora Mateo, Elida Mosquera, Sarah Moylan, Vitor Oliveira, Ryan Peeters, Mafalda Rangel, Peter Rieff, Carolien Schippers, Saskia Simon
CONSTRUCTION DOCUMENTS (Core & shell and interiors offices)
Partner in charge: Reinier de Graaf
Associate in charge: Alex de Jong, Katrien van Dijk
Project architect: Cock Peterse
Team: Philippe Braun, Vitor Oliveira, Mafalda Rangel, Peter Rieff, Elida Mosquera, Magdalena Stanescu
INTERIORS
Project Architect: Saskia Simon, Katrien van Dijk
Team: Maaike Hawinkels, Sebastian Janusz, Sarah Moylan, Ross O’Connell, Vitor Oliveira, Ryan Peeters, Mafalda Rangel, Deborah Richmond, Magdalena Stanescu, Lucia Zamponi
COLLABORATORS
Local architect, cost consultant: ABT
Process management: Brinkgroep BV
Structural engineer: Pieters Bouwtechniek
MEP engineer: Deerns Raadgevende Ingenieurs
Sustainability, building physics, acoustics, fire consultant, security: DGMR Bouw
Service engineers: Deerns, Burgers Ergon
Facades: Scheldbouw, Rollecate Interior contractor: Keijsers Lundiform Contractor: Heijmans
Year: 2009-2015
Photographs: Ossip van Duivenbode, Sebastian van Damme, Courtesy of OMA
