Nieuwe Unie, Rotterdam • 2001 - present
second office housing association De Nieuwe Unie
Client: Woningbouwvereniging Nieuwe Unie, Rotterdam

The design for this office is the result of a number of exceptional criteria, in which the site plays a decisive role. The location lies within an elongated strip that functions as a buffer between the small-scale ribbon construction along the Kralingseweg and the larger scale of the Alexanderlaan thoroughfare, where a metropolitan railway line and the construction of detached apartment blocks flank the road. In 1994, DKV realized the head office of the Nieuwe Unie housing association in this buffer zone. Its outspoken structure enables the viewer to see it as one volume and simultaneously as a collection of volumes. As such, it fulfils a role as intermediary between the small-scale and large-scale construction.

DKV has now been commissioned to realize a second office in this buffer zone, next to the head office. Analogous to the head office, an extended substructure has been deployed, this time resting on a car park that stretches diagonally under the ground. The substructure is implemented with façades of glass and metal, and accommodates the association’s facilities for the general public. Three pavilions have been placed crosswise on this substructure, and they protrude out over the public road. The pavilions are closed volumes of rust-coloured prefab concrete with aluminium window frames. Each storey has a functional core surrounded by office space that can be flexibly arranged. The pavilions are mutually connected via segments made completely of glass. The two open areas between the pavilions serve as communal roof gardens.

The structure gives the new office a kinship with the head office, although the divergent materials simultaneously characterize it as the new modern extension of the organization