Eemcentrum Masterplan, Amersfoort, the Netherlands, sketch, drawing Peter Wilson

Eemcentrum Masterplan

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Masterplan

COUNTRY: The Netherlands

CITY: Amersfoort

YEAR: 2008

GFA: 60.000 sqm

CLIENT: AM Vastgoed, Gouda / City of Amersfoort

Direct Planning Commission (City of Amersfoort) 2003

The Eemcentrum is a new cultural, leisure and residential quartier directly adjacent to the historic city centre. Cinema, housing and commercial components in combination with new city library, art school and pop podium face a conical and sloped square/garden which expands perspectively over its 200 m length. This scenographic choreography developed by BOLLES+WILSON constitutes the aesthetic and legal masterplan for the individual building commissions. Peter Wilson was also planning supervisor monitoring and coordinating the architectural development of the urban ensemble.

Eemblock – O’Donnell + Tuomey

Row Houses – Drost + van Veen

Cinema – Koen van Velsen

Shopping/Housing/Offices – Mecannoo

Library/Art School/Pop Podium – Neutelings Riedijk

Landscaping – Sant en Co

Eemcentrum Masterplan, Amersfoort, the Netherlands, site plan, lageplan
Eemcentrum Masterplan, Amersfoort, the Netherlands, site plan, lageplan
Eemcentrum Masterplan, Amersfoort, the Netherlands
Eemcentrum Masterplan, Amersfoort, the Netherlands
Eemcentrum Masterplan, Amersfoort, the Netherlands
Eemcentrum Masterplan, Amersfoort, the Netherlands
Eemcentrum Masterplan, Amersfoort, the Netherlands, sketch, aquarelle, Peter Wilson, drawing
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters

Raakspoort

Detail

Raakspoort – City Hall and Bioscoop

TYPOLOGY: Office / Leisure

COUNTRY: The Netherlands

CITY: Haarlem

YEAR: 2011

GFA: 18.500 sqm

CLIENT: MAB Development Nederland B.V.

AWARDS: NRW Jaarprijs, Best Retail Development, NL, 2013

Brick Award, Worldwide Brick, GB, 2012

PHOTOS: © Christian Richters

Transformative processes, particularly those relating to delicate fine-grained historic cities like Haarlem are complex and protracted. In the case of the Raaks project it took more than ten years to evolve from the considered Urban Masterplan (Donald Lambert – Kraaijvanger Urbis) through a sequence of workshops and program rethinks to the final ensemble, which opened in October 2011.

At the outset BOLLES+WILSON were given responsibility for the outermost block of this close packed, highly urban redevelopment precinct – which as it turns out (and as the masterplan prescribed) intertwines almost seamlessly with the adjacent small-scale urban fabric – a neighbourhood. The edge block must both shield (traffic) and invite (pedestrians), it must signal and respectfully take its place in the sequence of facades that define the historic limit of the medieval city. Initiating site workshops brought together neighbourhood representatives, city representatives, developers and architects – BOLLES+WILSON, Claus en Kaan, Jo Crepain and Kraaijvanger Urbis (who also had responsibility for the large format carpark below).

The complex functional mix began with one large and seven smaller Cinemas on the upper levels, a subterranean Casino and below that a parking deck (for croupiers and gamblers). Even at this stage the two functions were divided by a bisecting passage leading from the visible and representative outside facade to the networked block interior. The question of scale and historic referencing of the windowless

Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Ansicht, elevation
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Christian Richters
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Lageplan, site plan
Raakspoort, Raaks, Haarlem, the Netherlands, Grundriss, ground floor

House of Democracy

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Competition / Educational, Public

COUNTRY: Germany

CITY: Frankfurt

YEAR: 2025

COMPETITION: Open ideas competition according to RPW

GFA: 6.200 sqm (new) + 14.000 sqm (existing)

CLIENT: Stadt Frankfurt

NO NEW CONSTRUCTION ON PAULSPLATZ
A cohesive ensemble that offers visitors the opportunity to explore the history and significance of democracy.

THE DEMOCRATIC LOBBY
Positioned between the Paulskirche and the New Building, the foyer serves as a central link between all functions: the Paulskirche with its historical exhibition, the New Building with its event spaces, workshops, and permanent and temporary exhibitions, and the Kämmerei with its library, laboratories, and offices.

LOCATION & URBAN DESIGN
The New Building accommodates a 368-seat event hall, temporary exhibition spaces on the lower floors, and a permanent exhibition on the upper levels. Its deliberate placement along Berliner Straße preserves the openness of Paulsplatz, fostering a compelling visual and spatial dialogue with the Paulskirche.

MATERIALITY
The solid portions of the façades of both the New Building and the Democratic Lobby are clad in red Main sandstone. Walls and roof are constructed from glued laminated timber trusses in a sandwich system, with glass layers on both interior and exterior faces. The south façade integrates approximately 600 m² of photovoltaic panels, ensuring a sustainable energy contribution.

CONSIDERED POSITIONING
The vertical circulation core (8.50 × 4.80 m) is strategically placed in front of the closed eastern façade of the former Federal Audit Office building, preventing unwanted overshadowing while maintaining clear visual connections.

A greenhouse of democracy
rs yellow distribution_munster_markus hauschild

RS+Yellow Distribution

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Light Industrial, Office

COUNTRY: Germany

CITY: Münster

YEAR: 2009

GFA: 9.200 sqm

CLIENT: Rainer Scholze

AWARDS: German Façade Award 2010

PHOTOS: © Guido Erbring, Markus Hauschild, Christian Richters

When is a warehouse a lake? – in Münster.

This is the third BOLLES+WILSON building for the German-wide furniture chain RS+Yellow, an extension of the homebase storage and distribution centre by 7,000 sqm. The new rectangular building volume stands adjacent to the original 1992 corrugated aluminium warehouse.

The 60 x 66 m two stores ‘Big-Box’ is (as is usual for industrial architecture) reduced to a regular grid of pre-cast columns and widespan floor slabs. Facades are a standard lightweight concrete system. Verticality is emphasised with pyjama colour stripes interspersed with zinc coated grid stripes. These absorb all windows and necessary smoke outlets into an uninterrupted colour curtain.

This warehouse and even perhaps the 1,500 sqm of offices above the delivery bays are precisely realised but relatively conventional. The big surprise comes on arriving at the rooftop meeting rooms and executive offices. Through the intervention of the fire brigade (choreographed alarm) the roof of the building has been flooded – a 45 x 65 m reflecting pool.

The edge detail, laser levelled into invisibility, increases the metaphysical unreality of this sky reflector. Underwater compartments eliviate the risk of mini-tsunamis. Spillage is collected in edge channels and channelled to an internal cistern.

A wooden boardwalk fronts the large format sliding glass facade. A pier extends out to the centre of the water world. Here one can sit surrounded by geometric groves of bamboo. From here the south facing glass front of the roof pavilion reflects again the rippling expanse of water. The facade itself is shaded by a projecting steel pergola and a curtain of louvers descending at the press of a button from its outer edge.

This choreographed overlap of inside and outside, of natural and artificial, of direct and reflected light, create a unique atmosphere which could be described as an industrial scaled Japanese Tea-House.

rs yellow distribution_munster_markus hauschild
Offices with open sun louvres
rs yellow distribution_munster_markus hauschild
Offices with closed sun louvres
rs yellow distribution_munster_markus hauschild
View over the rooftop pool
rs yellow distribution_munster
View from the office with open sun louvres
rs yellow distribution_munster
View from the office with closed sun louvres
rs yellow distribution_munster
Warehouse façade
rs yellow distribution_munster
Fire brigade flooding the pool
rs yellow distribution_munster
Pool getting filled
rs yellow distribution_munster_plan_ground floor
Ground floor plan
rs yellow distribution_munster_plann_roof top
Upper floor plan
rs yellow distribution_munster_section
Section
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993

Kita 102

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Educational

COUNTRY: Germany

CITY: Frankfurt

YEAR: 1992 / 2014

CLIENT: Stadt Frankfurt

AWARDS: German Architecture Award 1993, Commendation

PHOTOS: © Waltraud Krase (1992), Rainer Mader (2014)

The 1992 Kita 102 in Frankfurt – Griesheim was one of BOLLES+WILSON’s first buildings in Germany. 22 years later it has been extended. What does it mean to revisit an early work? To measure if it has stood the test of time? Or even if the architectural themes of that time are still pertinent today?

What is immediately obvious is that a generous two floor, curvaceous and somewhat expressive sculpted volume is no longer feasible under today’s stringent budget restrictions (the political promise to deliver a kindergarten place for every child). The new extension is single storey, docking on to and sloping down from, an original 7 m high sport and sleeping hall.

The 3 original ground floor classrooms were for conventional pre-school kindergarten use, and the upper 2 rooms after-school homework facilities for older kids. The 3 new ground level classrooms extend kindergarten functions, kids can run out directly from group to garden.

The original building expands in width and height, a conical volume explained at the time as a metaphor for growing – spaces expand and contract as kids run from one end to another. A narrative scenario that extended to details like 2.10m high doors for teachers beside 1.50 m doors only for kids. Draconian budgets preclude such whimsical game playing in the new extension, perhaps it is also no longer the time for architecture to reflect on its syntactical potential. In the original Kita four windows conspired to inscribe a giant letter K across the facade. A readable building for children who are learning to read. Today it is left to colour to signify. A thematized May-Green has been here co-opted (as in almost every second contemporary Kindergarten) to signal a fresh, playful optimism. It is the only internal colour. Also a green horizontal beam/gutter above a south facing glass facade benevolently grows extended sun-blinds (also May green) to wrap the sunny side in a Mediterranean-like slab of shade. Window articulation is no longer expressive, a tough neighbourhood requires defensive measures if night cooling is to be activated.

What was in 1993 described, as an east-west slab turning its back to the noise of a nearby autobahn is now a very long east west slab, still turning its back and opening southward to an extended linear play-ground.

Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
1st stage (1992)
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
2nd stage (2014)
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993
Kita 102, Frankfurt, German Architecture Award 1993