Spuimarkt
TYPOLOGY: Shopping // Retail, Leisure, Cultural
COUNTRY: The Netherlands
CITY: The Hague
YEAR: 2008
Masterplan 1997
Design Commercial Block 2005-2007
GFA: 36.400 sqm
CLIENT: ING Vastgoed, The Hague; Pathé Theatres B.V.
COLLABORATOR: Bureau Bouwkunde (facilitating architect)
AWARDS: Shopping Centre of the Year NL 2009
PHOTOS: © Christian Richters
The Spuimarkt is a permeable block, it hosts the life of the city (tides and eddies of shoppers), it leads Bioscoop and other leisure seekers dramatically upward, and perches them in grand foyers, outlook windows, privileged vantages. The Pathé cinema foyer is a Piranesian space, its stairs flow dramatically upward, they cross, they hover. Just arriving at one of the nine cinemas (2,270 seats) is a cinematic experience – along the way some of the best views in Den Haag.
A richly textured brick facade gives unity and dignity to the whole block; the tactility of the rotated and projecting bricks is comparable to a tweed jacket, its hand-made quality both abstract and traditional. Spuimarkt’s sculptured corporal autonomy is carefully dovetailed into the wider context, mediating between the Bijenkorf and the City Hall to form a trilogy of major urban statements. The building’s varying scales respond to the surrounding context, the grand Grote Marktstraat facade steps down behind to the more intimate street scale of Gedempte Gracht. The lower Pathé cinema entrance reflects the height of the traditional houses it faces.
The sinuous roof silhouette, moulded around the cinema within, is like a topographic landform; an anchoring that gives measure and scale to the complex Den Haag skyline.
Teatri Andon Z Cajupi
TYPOLOGY: Cultural
COUNTRY: Albania
CITY: Korça
YEAR: 2017
CLIENT: Municipality of Korça
PHOTOS: © BOLLES+WILSON, Daniel Dervishi, Roman Mensing
Re-scripting Korca‘s theatre:
The theatre in Korca was initially a present from Moscow prior to Albanian Communism‘s falling out with Post-Stalinist Russia.
Its Soviet classicism was then stripped back to a sort of Balkan Art déco (Illus 1).
The large triangular Theatre Square, big enough for nationalistic parades, became a subject for re-formatting when in 2009 BOLLES+WILSON won the international planning competition for the historic centre of Korca. The main axis of the now almost fully implemented masterplan is the Bulevard Shën Gjergji (St. George), the new hub of the city, a pedestrian promenade (Illus 2) culminating in the Theater Square (now anchored by BOLLES+WILSON‘s 2014 Red Bar in the Sky – which focuses the Theatre Square, the concluding phase of the B+W 2009 masterplan. The campanile which functions as a lookout tower for Korcians to appreciate the delicate grain of their historic city is located at the end of the central pedestrian boulevard (landscaping by B+W).
The next intervention was the theatre itself – quite literally given a new face (or lots of new faces). Seating capacity was increased by converting a two-tier auditorium to a large raked plane (Illus 3 +4).
The design method as with all BOLLES+WILSON Albanian projects involved Peter Wilson‘s hand drawn concept (Illus 5) interpreted by a local facilitating office (in this case DEA Studio). A methodology that baits ‘lost in translation‘ misinterpretations (as was the case here when the contractors were found scratching their heads at a book of ‘Albanian Bling Renderings‘ but no details, a problem solved by Peter Wilson further sketching, this time 1:1 details direct on the wall).
The masks of comic and tragedy belong to theatre iconography, here they are joined by 140 smaller masks – the audience, hand crafted in terracotta by the local potter Vasillaq Kolevica (Illus 6+8). The 80 cm high individualized masks each occupy a grid square of the Art déco facade. The black tragic mask is convex, the white comic mask is concave – the construction principles for these were again hand sketched.
The comic mask is on a side annex (that now houses an internal grand stair), a cube clad in black basalt (Illus 10+13). The perimeter of the mask is defined by a stainless steel profile inside of which the white plaster indentation is recessed. The ominous black silhouette of the tragic mask is built up of polystyrene insulation blocks (Illus 11+12+14). Edge radii were sketched but ultimately a 1:1 demonstration with a bread knife was necessary to communicate the idea to he builders. The surface here is again plastered to resemble a giant Japanese ‘ No-theatre‘ mask (Illus 14+15).
CITADEL + THRINON HENGELO NL. 2005
TYPOLOGY: Residential
COUNTRY: The Netherlands
CITY: Hengelo
YEAR: 2005
GFA: 25.000 sqm
PARTNER: Bureau Boukunde, Rotterdam
PHOTOS: © BOLLES+WILSON
While paying our last respects to the soon to be demolished V&D department store in Hengelo we revisited our 2005 housing ensemble around the corner.
CITADEL + THRINON
(formally known as THIEMSLAND)
BOLLES+WILSON 1998–2005
Generous balconies in the three Citadel buildings overlook the expansive park.
Balcony planting signals happy occupants (blocks J + I)
Like all BOLLES+WILSON projects, the (then called) Thiemsland choreography
began with a hand sketch
House P
TYPOLOGY: Residential
COUNTRY: Germany
CITY: Münster
YEAR: 2013
GFA: 140 sqm
CLIENT: (private)
PHOTOS: © Christian Richters
Small is beautiful (+ energy efficient) – compact 140 sqm private house with outstanding ‘sustainability credentials’.
Plastered monolithic insulating ‘Poroton’ brick walls, triple glazing and a deep bore heat exchange pump lead to a non-fossil fuel energy classification (KFW 70) – 30 per cent below the current energy regulation.
RS+Yellow Distribution – Phase 3
TYPOLOGY: Office, Residential
COUNTRY: German
CITY: Münster
YEAR: 2018
GFA: 2.600 sqm
CLIENT: Rainer Scholze
The big box warehouse provides a monumental podium for an enigmatic folded form hovering above the (unseen from the street) water roof.The primary function is obviously storage, three levels of furniture to be distributed to the Germany wide network of RS+Yellow outlets. Pyjama striped aerated-concrete façade panels are interspersed with vertical smoke vents. Such vents are usually found on the roof of this pragmatic typology but here the roof (like in RS+Yellow Distribution – Phase 2) is flooded – an infinity pool, based on those seen by the client in South East Asia where he regularly travelled buying furniture. His plan was not only to work every day gazing out across his dreamlike waterscape, but also to spend his nights hovering above the rooftops of an unsuspecting Münster, Villa and Office Pavilion are thus connected by a bridge-box. Tragically Rainer Scholze did not live to see his vision complete. His private suite was not constructed and the living spaces now function as meeting and conference rooms for the co-operative he set up for his employees.
2: RS+Yellow Distribution - Phase 2
3: RS+Yellow Distribution - Phase 3
