Tripolis Park is a completed construction project that has refurbished one of the last projects the Dutch modernist architect Aldo van Eyck realized. Developed by Flow, the project used MVRDV to restore two of the three listed heritage buildings according to Van Eyck’s original designs while adding a 12-story “landscraper” along the edge of the site. This new addition acts to shield the complex, home to Van Eyck’s Amsterdam Orphanage, from the noise and dust of the nearby A10 highway.
MVRDV’s design continues the historical narrative begun by the original Tripolis, a trio of distinctive office buildings connected to the Amsterdam Orphanage, completed in 1960. After a successful campaign to save the orphanage from demolition in the 1980s, the City of Amsterdam provided land for the new office complex designed by Aldo and Hannie van Eyck. The original Tripolis performed poorly commercially and stood vacant for years, leading to this latest intervention to ensure its survival.
Protecting Heritage
“Demolition of heritage is always the easy option, especially if it is located in a business district dominated by high-rise buildings,” says MVRDV’s Winy Maas. “Tripolis Park offers an approach to protecting heritage that at the same time meets people’s expectations for an office today. It combines this with new densification, a continuation of the development at Amsterdam Zuidas, that doesn’t copy Van Eyck’s intention, but creates a new one, like a new layer in time. And it celebrates the in-between which, as Aldo explained to me when I was a student, is one of the main sources of beauty in architecture.”
Restoring such heritage buildings also involves modern adaptation, meeting the standards of a contemporary office while enhancing collaboration and sustainability. While the renovation retains some of the key features of the building, it updates its interior to make it more open.
Innovative Design Bridges History and Modernity
MVRDV has, through its design for Tripolis Park, effectively succeeded in integrating all the contemporary essentials within the historical framework of Aldo van Eyck’s original buildings. The secret to this restoration lies in the enhancement of the building façades with careful adherence to Van Eyck’s original designs: full cladding of façades with wood and retaining the distinctly multi-coloured window frames.
Inside, the design incorporates flexibility and collaboration in line with modern-day office trends. MVRDV has eliminated dividing walls to open spaces for collaboration and communication between the users. Green roofs and pavilions, in integration with solar panels, not only bring aesthetic appearance but also assure the project meets high sustainability standards, achieving BREEAM Outstanding certification. Combining the historical value of old heritage buildings with advanced modernist design principles, Tripolis Park forms a lively workspace by taking concrete steps towards the future and its extremely historically valuable past.
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