THE NETHERLANDS (1998)
Hilversum has a well-earned reputation as a “green” city. This is due to the generous areas destined to forests, which surround it. This project takes place on the edge of this natural forest reserve. Here the city possesses the last available land for building. On this extension of approximately 12 acres, Emilio Ambasz has had the commission to design a complex of office buildings which will accomplish the miracle of adding 600,000 sq. feet of new office space without taking away even one square inch of greenery. As it is now, Hilversum is the city of Willem Marinus Dudok, who worked as Director of Public Works and Architecture for the City of Hilversum in the first decades of this century. The city enjoys a high reputation for the splendid architectural quality of its schools and especially its municipal building. Appreciating the healthy number of visitors who come to admire Dudok’s work, the city has become sensitive to the importance of the quality of architecture in daily life, as well as a source of citizen prestige. It is therefore logical that, even in this case, the city should have sought an architect capable of providing such a large amount of square footage while at the same time maintaining the environmental qualities of this much-prized area. Ambasz’ proposal foresees the construction of an office complex of approximately 600,000 sq. feet placed within three buildings, which resemble from the outside hills cultivated in a terraced manner. A thin glass plane cuts these artificial hills in half, following the grounds of a once-existing hippodrome, transformed on this occasion into a walkway that connects the three buildings.
