Sixty-five per cent of Dutch men and women engage in sports or work out on a regular basis. Those living in Amsterdam are not dispersed evenly across the city and there are major local differences. Remarkably few exercisers live on the edge of town while in the centre the figure stands at 81 per cent of residents.

Yet a stocktake of sports and fitness centres in Amsterdam would yield no fully-fledged facilities in or near the city centre. They are all in the outlying areas.

These observations prompted me to design a full-blown sports and fitness facility in the centre of Amsterdam. The brief was to organize a spatially extensive programme along compact lines. It had to be able to cope with large volumes of visitors at a centrally situated and easily accessible location. The design combines a wide range of sports and fitness activities with a complementary programme of relaxation.

This combination transforms this design for an efficient sports/fitness centre into an attractive, sensational building where it is pleasant to spend time.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Christoph Grafe, Fons Verheijen, Pero Puljiz