The Mountain Sports Machine is projected for the year 2000 on Noordereiland in the River Maas at Rotterdam. The complex is to meet the wishes of many Dutch men, women and children to be able to practice their favourite winter sport close to home. It comprises a cooled indoor ski hall, a wild water canoing course and a climbing wall plus supporting facilities including a hotel, a fitness centre and a congress hall.

The architecture of the complex proceeds from the artificial nature of such sports. Accordingly, the mountain landscape is abstracted into a tough urban environment. The wild water canoing course carves a path through the parking garage. Skiers exercise in an icy white space with sudden views of the entrance lobby and the city, to then disappear below entrance level only to regain height fast in a lift. The climbers are facade tourists and use the inner wall of the hotel as a practice rockface, gaining a glimpse of hotel guests passing by beyond. Below them, the wild water course thunders into the building.

Because of its tough, contained character, the Sports Machine is an autonomous object in the city, with an exterior combining aluminium cladding with asphalt-like facade panels. The machines that keep the building running are also part of the frontage, giving it the appearance of one gigantic machine, a climate factory. This machine pulls into close proximity a number of sports that under normal circumstances are practised miles away from each other. To articulate these novel confrontations, the building constructs a relationship between the various sports. All converge in the entrance lobby, giving new arrivals an overview of what the building has to offer. It is only by active use of the various routes that one gradually discovers the building's true cohesion, its spaciousness and - the ultimate kick - its surprises.

Place of education: TU Delft
Tutors: Rein Saariste, Jack Breen, Berenbak & Rogier Verbeek
Specialization: architecture.