The dance institute gives the professional dance world a recognizable place of its own

The proposed dance institute stands on the banks of the IJ inlet in the former Stork factory grounds in Amsterdam-Noord. With Amsterdam's professional dance world scattered all over the city at present, this would give it one readily identifiable place. In the institute dancers and choreographers can convene to develop dance pieces and above all show the world of dance to the public. The dance-related programme of studios, indoor and outdoor performance venues and apartments for choreographers combines with a hefty public programme including a foyer, refreshment facilities, a dance club, a bath house with exercise studio and sauna, and a shop. The principal theme in the design process was to strengthen the public realm in Amsterdam-Noord.

Drawn from the rhythms and lines of its immediate surroundings, the dance institute consists of a landscape of 'freestanding' buildings rising out of the earth that generate between them formal and informal outdoor spaces. The seemingly separate blocks are connected by a bustling underground corridor. Not just a functional connecting route, it also serves as a foyer. It provides dancers with the desired congenial space just outside the studios, including the necessary space for 'slowness'. It also creates meeting points between the dance world and the public, which gets sneak peeks into the world of dance, a world unknown to many, whilst following the public route.

Altogether it is a building along restrained lines that I hope will show off the world of dance to full effect. The brief was to design a clearly recognizable place for the dancers within a complex ensemble of spaces each with its own purpose and appeal. A broad analysis focusing on the correlation of the analysed aspects generated during the process a storyline from which the design emerged.

Just as architecture is for architects, so the notion of 'dance' has its own highly specific meaning for each dancer. This design, then, is not meant for any one individual but for a very broad group of people, each with their own perception of the different spaces. Which is why I have designed a 'neutral' building in which the dance itself is the ornament. In so doing, I seek to create spaces whose neutrality can be interpreted in different ways by its users and so bring about a degree of flexibility in its use. The aforementioned storyline of the design can then become the storyline of the dancers and develop on its own terms without the architecture pushing itself into the foreground.

Place of education: TU Delft | Specialization: architecture | Tutors: Heike Löhmann, Maarten Meijs