The scheme for appropriate accommodation for Greenpeace is sited on the Muller Pier in Rotterdam. The aim during the design process was that the designer explore the conflict between designer and user on all levels of planning and assess which of them determines the result at each point and how.

In urban terms the task projects on the Muller Pier a permanent utility of housing, offices and parking in such a way as to enable it to combine with the Pier's potential for major non-permanent events such as fairs, circuses or the Davis Cup tennis tournament now underway there. To marry the extreme openness of the pier with the non-public spaces of the permanent functions the pier floor is configured as a hill with a public upper deck and private lower deck.

The Greenpeace Action Centre is similarly ordered. The lower-deck office building is spatially configured to follow the organizational structure of Greenpeace. This divides into four disciplines: media, research, journalism and editorship and finally action and education. Each discipline receives the same spatial framework which is individualized by the difference in use.

The public building is given over to the information service. Auditorium, reading room and entry are unified by a rigid form specified for the function by the designer alone. These spaces have a thoroughly ordered and perfectly smooth finish. In the resulting residual areas are the flexible-use spaces for exhibitions and congresses. Their finish lacks order and exploits recycled materials.

Environmental aspects influence not only on the materials but the climate control as well, with sun collectors and windmills providing the offices and housing on the Muller Pier with energy.

Place of education: TU Delft
Tutors: Jaap de Jong, Peter Lüthi & Arie Krijgsman
Specialization: architecture