Designing an office building for the rental market, without a known client, is dancing in the dark. A well-defined brief is lacking, flexibility is the main concern. At this location in Amsterdam the context came to the rescue. The design had to fit in between a stately 19th century town house and a functional office building by the modernist Mart Stam from 1955.

Bauhaus provided the inspiration. A supporting structure of concrete columns and floors is filled in and wrapped with glass, framed in metal. The elevator shaft with glass on three sides not only shows the two panoramic cabins but, by being recessed, it also reveals the party wall of Stam’s building, that originally was freestanding.

At the front, the entrance lobby is two floors high and flows over into an eight floor high light well. Glass building bricks and glass partitions spread daylight over all levels. In the low-rise extension at the back, where the building is at its broadest and deepest, a open courtyard provides air and daylight.