Completing the Eastern Docklands
Our final year project was for a masterplan for three subareas of the Eastern Docklands in Amsterdam: Oosterdokseiland, Oostelijke Handelskade and Rietlanden. We have introduced the themes of stacking and contact in a way that the not inconsiderable programme and the existing givens are mutually reinforcing.
On Oosterdokseiland, for example, the stacking strategy involves placing new blocks atop the existing ones. The strategy of contact is deployed in the Rietlanden subarea and elsewhere. By sinking all infrastructure together with a transferium below a prismatic landscaped hill, the existing void can be preserved. Sports fields half tucked into the hill enable the landscape and the traffic functions to relate visually. On Oostelijke Handelskade the prevailing linear structure is enhanced. Here we constructed a detailed system of rules governing the built development along this quay, in a bid to strike a balance between freedom and securing urban quality. A number of spearheads, each with a special programme and set equidistantly, are there to structure the subarea. One such spearhead at the extremity of Oostelijke Handelskade has been worked out in detail. This building houses three functions, a modern music centre, a 'cultiplex' (a cross between a film theatre and a multi-screen cinema) and a flat-floor theatre. In this complex too, the strategies of stacking and contact apply. The element of contact is stepped up by getting the various use forms to meet. There is, besides, an added moment of contact between public and actors where their routes are made to cross. Out of the stacking strategy comes a vertical disposition, in a tower, of auditoria separated by foyers. Its architectural treatment is a nod to the dockland ambience all around. While the zone of staffrooms has an air of great mass about it in a allusion to the existing warehouses nearby, the auditoria look more like large stacked containers. The foyers, wrapped in an all-glass skin, offer a magnificent prospect of the city.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architecture & urban design
Tutors: John Westrik, Bernard Leupen, Saskia de Wit & Henk Mihl