The regional bakery attached to the HEMA chain store, where the cakes and tarts familiar to all Holland come from, is one of the many factories that generally come in anonymous boxes. Despite the dominant role these play locally, little if any thought is given to housing such agents of mass production.

This particular bakery can be set down anywhere at all in the landscape, preferably on a motorway. Nine concepts were developed for as many potential sites along the Amsterdam ring road. Two were worked into outline schemes, one into the definitive design.

When sited among offices near the off-the-peg clothing centre of the city, the bakery takes the form of a cube clad in frosted glass on which the shadows of employees can be seen at night. The production process proceeds from above to below, at which point the end-product is visible to passers-by.

A second site is in the docklands beyond the Coen Tunnel. There the building has an industrial mien: the raw materials enter it from below, containers are hoisted up to be filled at the top with the final product. At night the building is lit up like a monument: the cake as a spectacular variety of sculpture.

The northern ring road is the most obvious site unencumbered as it is with planning constraints. Placed here, the bakery creates some of its own. This building trying hard not to be a building, is more a production machine wedged between two screens. The acoustic baffle of frosted glass panels out of which are hewn the letters HE and MA, extends the entire breadth of the building. Set in this glazed facade are zones of sound absorptive panels. The letters cast their shadow onto the road, the panels effecting a subtle change in the sound from passing vehicles. The screen on the landscaped south side is a neutral timber fence. In between the two screens is a double-height production hall with the floors containing ancillary functions winding through it to create a wealth of sections. A ramp brings 'raw' materials and employees alike into the building across a roofed plaza.

Place of education: Amsterdam
Tutors: Arie van Rangelrooij, Thijs van Hees, Herman Kerkdijk, John Bosch & Chris Scheen
Specialization: architectuur / architecture