Office Terrace, Stationsplein  Apeldoorn • 2000 - 2005
tax office
Client: Forumpark Apeldoorn / Rijksgebouwendienst

has been nominated for the Architectuurprijs Apeldoorn 2004

The façade of the Stationsplein in Apeldoorn is a crescent, a half-moon shape that assigns a majestic scale to the public space. The so-called Kantorenterras   tax office (‘office terrace’) forms the most easterly part of this crescent. The three straight sides of this complex border on the small-scale Sophialaan, the large-scale railway line with its adjacent bus station, and a busy trunk road. A homogeneous construction form was taken as the basic concept for the Kantorenterras. Care was taken that it should have sufficient presence to counterpoise the consistently varying context. The main structure is a comb-like configuration with open courts, which, on the one hand, exhibit the large scale of a single extended volume and, on the other, display the smaller scale of detached masses.This structure is also the leitmotif for the organization of the building. A wide, central inner passage runs the length of the longitudinal axis on all floors, linking all the sections of the building, and issues on to the front square at the main entrance. The floor areas that are accessed via this inner passage are freely arrangeable. The storeys are mutually connected via staircases situated in the extended vides along the corridor.The principle of architecture at varying scale levels recurs in the use of material. The white prefab skeleton, which determines the contour of the main volume, is alternately filled with glass and dark prefab elements, depending on the situation. On the square, the grid fits in with the height of the other parts of the crescent, and forms an arcade on the ground floor. As a contrast, the façades on the courtyards are made entirely of wood.