NL Architects

| Pieter Bannenberg (*1959) | Walter Van Dijk (*1962) | Kamiel Klaasse (*1967) | Mark Linnemann (*1962)

 

 

The Dutch agency NL Architects is Amsterdam-based. Its four associates, Pieter Bannenberg, Walter van Dijk, Kamiel Klaasse and Mark Linnemann, officially founded the agency in 1997, but their collaborative work dates back to the early 1990s, when they were all students together at the Technical University in Delft. Already resident in Amsterdam, it is in the switch between the two cities—in this day-to-day experience of a world of asphalt and of a specifically motorway-oriented aesthetic, and through the at once revealing and tedious way it looks at the territory—that they claim to have developed the seeds of their thinking about the contemporary metropolis, in a more or less self-taught way. For this is indeed the particular field that their architecture explores : the present-day predominantly suburban western condition. NL projects, which are radically critical of this reality, are typified by an extreme sensibility, and by a keen fix on all the issues, problems, scales and processes which are encountered. And it is, in the end of the day, in order to deal with the most commonplace aspects of the real, and the most prosaic practices, that they develop their most innovative and forward-looking devices and arrangements, in a systematic endeavour to get the most out of the unexplored potential of the things all around us : a carpark, a shopping centre, a road, a house... Architecture, for NL, cannot be separated from these suburban issues and strategies, and is, indeed, their key. Through its capacity to articulate paradoxical conditions and heterogeneous elements, it is the preferred tool for synthesizing new types of buildings, programmatic hybrid structures, and the expression of new limitations and practices. The form of the mega-structure, for example, which they reintroduce in several of their projects (Return to the Fold™, Parkhouse/Carstadt), represents for them one of the typically architectural responses to problems of territorial staggering and horizontal de-densification. Architecture is thus presented as a field of experimental activity, at the crossroads of economic, programmatic, technical and even environmental thinking. The city is actually perceived by NL as an ecosystem, no less, an environment where logical systems of urban growth and natural factors, consumption and production, flux and stasis are balanced ; and where recycling is set up as a method of stable and sustainable functioning, whether it has to do with waste, energy, materials or even architecture. This concern is very tangible in the WOS 8 project, where a power station becomes at once part of the cityscape, a backdrop for sports facilities, and a refuge adapted to suit several species of birds. This decidedly realistic and pragmatic dimension of NL production cannot, however, be separated from a markedly critical, ironical and forward-looking stance, which can be detected in projects like Paid Parking (a carpark self-financed by the advertising in it, visible from the air) and Sky Cemetery (a cross-shaped highrise building-cum-cemetery in Manhattan). 

nl architects

 

Return to the Fold TM
Melbourne, Australie, Concours, 1997

nl architects
nl architects
nl architects

In 1997, Return to the FoldTM was a response to the competition for the creation of a civic centre in the heart of Melbourne, beside the river Yarra, above the station railway tracks. This complex would house a shopping mall, a multiplex cinema, exhibition, sports, and performance halls, gardens, an inter-modal station, audiovisual studios, offices, and so on… Faced with this programmatic heterogeneity, the NL architects sought above all to solve the problematic issue of continuity between public sphere and privatized commercial sphere. The programmes are housed on a homogeneous layer where the roofing forms an independent public esplanade, at once stage and seating for all collective activities. From this area, the citizen/consumer decides to "plunge" or to "float". The programmatic layer then folds over, enveloping a huge public atrium, all outdoors, embellished by a lift on an articulated arm. The fold forms a colossal baldachin, and protects the structure from both bad weather and the heat waves that are frequent in Melbourne.

 

Y2K+
La Haye, Hollande, 1999

nl architects
nl architects
nl architects

After the 2nd World War in the Netherlands, low cost housing for all was produced in large and spacious new urban expansions (space was cheap) with compact multi-family buildings (material was expensive). Since the late eighties, the following slow, relentless exodus from the postwar expansions is now resulting in a kind of natural, economic segregation, extensive postwar ghettos to be and compact monomanic suburbs. Y2K+ offers a new option. Y2K+ is a case study for The Hague southwest, an exemplary postwar urban expansion. NL proposes a strategy to rejuvenate this spacious housing area, potentially rich, by taking the current abundance of collectives of all sorts as its point of departure. Each building is to accommodate just one collective and will provide it with its very own, specific look, mode and feel. NL elaborates two buildings, with distinctly different modes of construction and apartment typology where outdoor space, becomes the primary tool of expression of a sum, larger than the constituting parts.

 

Y Building
Amsterdam, Hollande, 1999

nl architects
nl architects
nl architects

The location for this study is a very promising site on the banks of the river Y. Since the train tracks are partly decommissioned, a large piece of land, which directly connects to Central Station and the River, becomes available. The investors of the Harbor Building (designed by Dudok), one of four developers in this area, are looking for possibilities to double the existing square footage with at least 12.000 m2. The dimension of the site, height restrictions and the monumental character of the Dudok building made any extension problematic. This proposal suggests to "clone" the existing building. The result is manipulated and deformed in order to provide enough daylight and to maintain the important views. The innovation of the scheme is the colonization of the 3D space outside and above the site boundary. The Harbor Building has one peculiar hidden property. This slab in fact consists of two towers that are held together by one facade. There are two elevator shafts, two staircases, two mechanical shafts, two toilet groups and two pantries on each floor. In the cloned building these towers are set free : a Siamese twin-tower appears.

 

WOS 8
Leidsche Rijn, Hollande, 1998

nl architects

nl architects

nl architects

WOS 8 is a heat distribution relay station (Warme Overdracht Station n° 8) which supplies the recent extension of Utrecht—the new town of Leidsche Rijn. The principle of this facility is to recycle the energy wasted when the turbines of a major power station cool. This energy, which was formerly squandered, today makes it possible to provide heating and hot water to the new housing units. WOS 8 looks above all like a thick, opaque skin of black polyurethane wrapping the optimized volume of the machine rooms. Located for the time being in the rear yard of a farm, by 2005 it will be part of the new town's public space when this area is developed. WOS 8 has thus been conceived as an active element of (sub)urban amenities. As a playful and sporting object, it is covered with artificial climbing holds and also boasts a basketball hoop, which coincides with the only window. The rough surface of this active sculpture plays with rainwater run-off. The warmer southern façade is covered with artificial nests for tits, house martins and even bats.nl architects

 

Pieter Bannenberg (1959)
1995 – Diplômé de la Technical University, Delft

Walter van Dijk (1962)
1991 – Diplômé de la Technical University, Delft

Kamiel Klaasse (1967)
1995 – Diplômé de la Technical University, Delft

Mark Linnemann (1962)
1991 – Diplômé de la Technical University, Delft
1997 – Création de NL Architects à Amsterdam

Principaux projets et réalisations

2000 – "CK" transformation d'un immeuble de bureaux en appartements et studios, Amsterdam (en cours) ; "Hidden Delights" 10 maisons à patio, Amsterdam (en cours) ; "Bike City" The Hague (en cours) ; "KHK" 88 logements, The Hague (en cours) ; "Mandarina Duck" concept de magasin, magasin pilote à Paris (en cours)
1999 – "Y2K+" 85 logements, Hoogeveenlaan, The Hague (projet) ; "Y-Building" immeuble de bureaux, Amsterdam (projet) ; "Wunderman Cato Johnson" Amsterdam (réalisé) ; "Parking for Amsterdam Municipal Office" (projet) ; "Maritime Zone" Ijburg, Amsterdam (projet)
1998 – "WOS 8" station thermique, Leidsche Rijn (réalisée) ; "Cinecenter" 4 salles et foyer, rénovation, Amsterdam (réalisée) ; "Drive-in-Block" Zeeburg, Amsterdam (projet) ; "PNEM – a Boiler House" Breda (concours) ; "Workshop Zeeburg" Zocher Parkway ; "Studio Photo & Appartement Edo Kars" Amsterdam (réalisé)
1997 – "Return to the Fold™" Melbourne, Australie (concours) ; "Vision 2020 – Schiphol City" Amsterdam (réalisé) ; "Leliegracht 3" House Canal, rénovation, Amsterdam (réalisée)
1996 – "Pixel City" Wateringse Veld, The Hague (projet) ; "Millenium Bridge" Londres (concours)
1995 – "Parkhouse/Carstadt" Amsterdam (projet)
1994 – "Flat" étude pour 220 logements, Leidsche Rijn (projet)

Bibliographie sélective de NL Architects

2000 – Wohn ! Design (janv.)
1999 – Arquitectura Viva (nov.) ; Skim.Com (déc.) ; Spur (déc.) ; Monument n°33 ; l'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui n°324 ; Intelligente Architektur (nov.) ; Quaderns "Spirals 99" ; Arch+ n°147 ; BLVD (oct.) ; Spazio e Societa n°87 ; Architektur Aktuell (juil./août) ; Wired Magazine (août) ; Haüser (avril) ; Interview (juin) ; "Yearbook, Architecture in the Nederlands 98/99" ; Architect (mai) ; Werk, Bauen+Wohnen (avril) ; Frame 7 (vol.3) ; Bauwelt 1/1
1998 – Arquitectura Viva n°73 ; Metropolis "The Ocular Issue" ; l'Arca n°128 et 129 ; "Big Soft Orange" catalogue de l'exposition BSO, Yale University (New Haven) ; "Terra Incognita" catalogue de l'exposition ; Quaderns ; HdA ; Monument ; Millenium
1997 – Arquitectura Viva n°54 ; "Nine+One" catalogue de l'exposition, NAI, Rotterdam
1996 – Archis n°12 ; Arch+ 133 ; Topos n°15 ; Wiederhall n°19 ; Europan IV Nederlands