Timmerhuis Rotterdam Building, Dutch City Hall Project News, Design, Property Image

Timmerhuis Rotterdam Building by OMA

New City Hall Development in The Netherlands: Stadskantoor design by OMA, Architects

7 Feb 2017

Timmerhuis Shortlisted for Mies van der Rohe 2017 Award

Timmerhuis Rotterdam is one of 40 shortlisted works competing for the 2017 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, announced by the European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe.

Mies van der Rohe 2017 Award Shortlist

2 Jan 2017

Timmerhuis Building Nominated for Mies van der Rohe 2017 Awards

Mies van der Rohe 2017 Award Nominations

1 Feb + 31 Jan 2016

Timmerhuis in Rotterdam

Timmerhuis in Rotterdam by OMA

Design: OMA

Photographs added of this major new building © Ton Hermans:

Empty place behind the Town hall in 2011 where later the new ‘Timmerhuis’ came:

The construction workers:

In the beginning:

Building under construction:

View from one of the flats:

For Rotterdam’s Timmerhuis, a new building for the city hall that accommodates municipal services, offices, and residential units, OMA conceived a modular building with repeated units gradually set back from the street as they rise into two irregular peaks. The building’s composition of smaller cells creates an impressive, complex form when viewed from Coolsingel, one of Rotterdam’s main arteries, and allows for subtlety and adaptability as the new building meets the Stadstimmerhuis (a municipal building, from 1953), which surrounds it on two sides.

behind the town hall:

building under construction:

One of the flats, part of the building:

Work is complete:

The Timmerhuis’s innovative structural system generates maximum efficiency and versatility both in construction and in program: units can adapt to either office space or residential parameters as desired. Green terraces on higher levels provide the possibility of an apartment with a garden in the heart of urban Rotterdam. On the street level, the structure allows for generous open space, with modules overhanging rather than encroaching into an interstitial area, encouraging an active and open engagement between the Timmerhuis and the city.

image courtesy of OMA; photography by Ossip van Duivenbode

The design brief stipulated that the Timmerhuis must be the most sustainable building in the Netherlands. OMA tackled this imperative through the building’s core concept of flexibility, and also through the two large atriums, which act like lungs. They are connected to a climate system that stores warmth in summer and cold in winter and releases this energy as warm or cold air as required. The building’s triple glazed curtain wall facade uses hi-tech translucent insulation that allows for unprecedented energy efficiency.

image courtesy of OMA

Rather than being yet another statement in Rotterdam’s crowded history of revisionist planning and cacophony of architectural styles, the ambiguous mass of the Timmerhuis tries to mediate between the existing buildings surrounding it. The axis between the existing town hall and the post office coincides with the axis of symmetry of the Timmerhuis , and the street between these two buildings continues into a passageway to the Haagseveer. The Timmerhuis integrates with the neighbouring Stadtimmerhuis by maintaining the same floor heights, while the plinth height of 20m conforms to the character of the surrounding Laurenskwartier.

Heijmans Timmerhuis – Timelaps filmpje vanaf WTC from Timmerhuis on Vimeo.

Statement by Reinier de Graaf:

Today’s Rotterdam is an ecology of successive architectural convictions over time: the modernism of the post-war reconstruction; the humanism of the seventies; the post-modernism of the eighties; high-rise buildings and the compact city in the nineties and a sort of “free for all” in the new millennium.

Rather than adding yet another grand statement, Timmerhuis attempts a constructive ‘surrender’ to the city’s present state. The building’s formless, seemingly improvised composition acts as an echo of the city’s mood. It creates the possibility of different experiences: from the Coolsingel, viewed between the Town Hall and the Post Office, the building appears nearly symmetrical, monumental even… on the other side, in relation to the existing monument, the same building appears delicate and accommodating.

The cantilevering steel structure allows the uninterrupted unfolding of public space on the ground floor, home to a large public passage and the new location for the Museum Rotterdam.

Heijmans Timmerhuis – Timelaps filmpje vanaf Stadhuis from Timmerhuis Rotterdam on Vimeo.

Timmerhuis Rotterdam – Building Information

LOCATION: Rotterdam, Netherlands
CLIENT: Stadsontwikkeling Rotterdam
YEAR: 2009–15

STATUS: Completed
PROGRAM: Mixed Use
PARTNER: Reinier de Graaf
ASSOCIATES: Alex de Jong, Katrien van Dijk

image courtesy of OMA; photography by Sebastian van Damme

OMA

Website: Timmerhuis in Rotterdam, Building by OMA

Timmerhuis is geopend!

Op vrijdag 11 december vierde Rotterdam haar volgende grote aanwinst. Het Timmerhuis ging officieel open in het hart van de stad. Een icoon dat het leven terug brengt naar de plek waar de wederopbouw van Rotterdam werd aangestuurd. Wonen, werken, cultuur en ontspannen komen samen in één gebouw.

Na een periode van voorbereiden en bouwen wordt het gebouw nu dan ook echt gebruikt. Alle appartementen zijn verkocht en opgeleverd en een groot gedeelte is ook reeds bewoond. De ambtenaren van de gemeente Rotterdam hebben ook de gloednieuwe werkplek al in genomen. De winkels zijn grotendeels open en Thoms, het eerste restaurant, is ook geopend. Het Timmerhuis heeft de afgelopen dagen / weken veel aandacht gekregen in de pers. Teveel om allemaal naar te verwijzen maar onderstaand treft u er een aantal links naar berichten (tekst en beeld) aan.

Het Timmerhuis team wenst u prettige feestdagen en een gezond 2016.

Website: Timmerhuis in Rotterdam

Location: Timmerhuis, Rotterdam, The Netherlands