Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Developing open inner-city campuses to strengthen bonds within the academic community, Amsterdam-based MVSA Architects designs Amsterdam University’s New Library in partnership with architectural firm J. van Stigt to create a unique public space covering over 12,000 square meters where hundreds of students, staff, and residents will study, work and live.
The atrium will be covered with a particularly unusual roof – one of the most radical aspects of the new design.
The studio has developed a roof structure that spans the void and extends over and beyond the existing buildings like a huge leaf.
Panels will also be laid out to resemble a leaf’s vein patterning.
Old and new will be blended together in a respectful fashion to preserve listed buildings and to make them visible from within the atrium.
The steel superstructure will not only connect the former clinic and nurses’ home but also form a climatic buffer zone for the entire building.
Ground-floor areas will house most of the public spaces, such as study rooms and classrooms, as well as the UB canteen.
Because existing buildings are listed, exterior changes will be kept to an absolute minimum.
New construction work will only take place at the corner of the campus on Nieuwe Doelenstraat.
The architects are widening the former ambulance gateway on Vendelstraat to create a new main entrance – open and accessible – designed to establish a direct link between the campus and the atrium at the heart of the UB.
A façade screen will be installed outside study rooms on the first and second floors of the new building, which will morph from an abstract pattern to recognizable figures or signs as you approach the corner of the campus on Nieuwe Doelenstraat.
These figures and signs will form references to the Humanities.
Project: Amsterdam University Library
Architects: MVSA Architects and Buro van Stigt
Client: Universiteit van Amsterdam (UVA)
Renderings: MVSA Architects
