HAN University of Applied Sciences, Arnhem, The Netherlands
Multidisciplinary project, Renovation office building, 2009
The office of Rijkswaterstaat is currently situated in a 65 meters high tower in Arnhem Presikhaaf. Because the façade no longer meets the requirements of building physics and aesthetics, Rijkswaterstaat made the decision to move to a new location.
For us the challenge to upgrade the façade and think of a new program for the tower, so the building is going to have a valuable appearance again and the neighborhood Presikhaaf will reap the rewards from this renovation. Hopefully Presikhaaf even gets its high status again they had in the 60’s, when the neighborhood was famous because of it’s modern shopping mall, located next to the Rijkswaterstaat tower.
We decided to integrate a public program in the tower, to attract more people to the area. The height of the tower can be used to give the visitors a great view over the city Arnhem, so a restaurant is going to be situated on the top floors. In the plinth also a public program is situated and in the middle there is space for apartments. The concept of the façade is to create a dynamic appearance which represents the visitors movement through the tower. The plinth and the upper floors have a dark coloured glass façade, connected by smaller lines of dark glass to show the movement of the visitors from the plinth to the restaurant. Also in the interior the dark line is visible through the tower. It curls around the core of the tower and exists out of black stairs and public functions.
Jet Tillmann Architectuur 