OurDomain, The Netherlands
8 april
Project: OurDomain, Rotterdam | The Netherlands
Architect: Tangram Architects, Amsterdam | The Netherlands
Fabricator & Installer: WVH Gevelprojecten B.V., Oirschot | The Netherlands
Façade System: Tray panels special design
Year of Construction: 2021
Product: ALUCOBOND® PLUS premium anodised Panelox® AluBronze 01 + AluBronze 03
Photos:Peter de Ruig
High-rise replaces ruins
This project deals with a void, a site left empty since the bombing of Rotterdam in 1940 and a dilemma which very few believed could be remedied. Although the rest of the city had long since been rebuilt, this triangular plot of urban waste land was like a gaping wound or an unsightly gap in a row of teeth. The space, located at a prominent point on Wijnhaven next to Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences, was too small and too awkwardly shaped for investors to be interested. Tangram Architects have now built a high-rise which not only provides accommodation for students but, combined with the tower block on the opposite side of the road, also creates a gateway to the city. The ground plan of the storeys at the base of the building follow the outline of the building plot very precisely. Every available square metre is used in this extremely dense urban setting. The architects give the upper floors more scope, breaking away from the narrow footprint and creating a staggered frontage with levels grouped together and jutting beyond the line of the building below. This strategy has enabled them to maximise the surface area and create space for more than 600 flats on the upper floors. The ground level floors, where a restaurant, shops, offices and a library are located, are open to the public, meaning that the architects succeed not only in making the best possible use of the space, but also in creating a connection to the surrounding area. The building and the quayside are linked, as are the quayside and the bridge. The former gap has not only been filled, but new relationships have been generated within the urban context, however, memories of rubble and bomb damage have not just been relegated to history. This is mainly down to the façade: it is designed in sections of varying height and in different ways on each side: a glass façade here; a rear-ventilated ALUCOBOND® tray panel façade with punched windows there. The disparate façade emphasises the nature of building’s stacked volume. The ALUCOBOND® façade has yet more to offer. The special PANELOX® composite panels trace a special pattern in AluBronze 01 and AluBronze 03. Based on an old black-and-white photo of the bomb debris on the site, the architects developed this pattern and used it to capture the image of ruins, devastation and caesura on the newly designed façade. Alongside the fresh, youthful life they have brought to this troubled site, the past is commemorated. In fact, thanks to PANELOX® technology, the surface pattern is not merely a two-dimensional colour print. The bi-layer texture, creating different degrees of reflection within each panel and changing continuously depending on the incidence of light and the viewer's perspective, make the surface look truly three-dimensional.