Arch 471-Erick van Egeraat Paper
The firm philosophy page of Erick van Egeraat’s web page reads much as one would expect, with key phrases about “striving to be different” and “influenced by cultural and historical context as well as contemporary life.” The thing that stands out is a quote by George Stanishev from his book “World Architecture” that talks about Erick van Egeraat’s “use of consciously developed counterpositions is reminiscent of the principles of inversion in mannerism and baroque.” I find this comparison to be interesting because in a bizarre way it relates to my experiences of the five Erick van Egeraat buildings that I saw, as well as the photographs of the buildings that I have looked at in preparation for this study. George Stanishev goes on to say “most of EEA’s projects reveal a sense of rigorous contemporary architecture that has undergone a softening melting effect of a sensual attraction.” It is this sensual nature that comes out in EEA’s use of materials and color that are in my opinion deserving of comparisons to baroque architecture.
Starting with the earliest EEA building that I visited, a hotel addition in Rotterdam, which is Erick van Egeraats first building independent of the firm Mecanno, which he helped form before he had even graduated from the Technical University of Delft. This building was an extension onto an existing hotel building but it begins to set up some of the reoccurring themes that I found in the buildings that I visited. The hotel is conceptually divided into three volumes, a new tower, a vertical sliver of an atrium that brings light and vertical circulation to the lobby, and an older more squat volume of the existing building. These three volumes are layered vertically and stacked together like books in a bookcase. The new tower has an extruded curving freeform shape reminiscent of a piano. It is covered with metal scales, which along with inset horizontal windows accentuate the curving form and bring a strong sense of materiality that contrasts with the glass void of the atrium and the plain white volume of the earlier building.
Chronologically, the next building that I visited was the Inholland University building, also in Rotterdam, which was completed in 2000. This building continues to use the language of sandwiched vertical layers, this time reducing the material palate to glass of varying articulation and opacities. The south facing side of the building is clad in reflective glass articulated by staggered horizontal mullions, and houses the more public spaces of the building; a full height atrium lobby, meeting spaces, cafeteria and study areas below, with classrooms above. The center layer is a band of “cobalt blue screen processed glass” that represents the main horizontal circulation of the building. The north side of the building is covered in clear glass backed by white shades and houses the offices for the university. On the inside of this articulated box EEA freely places the public spaces on differing levels surrounding the huge full height atrium. In the openness of the interior the different spaces all seem to blend into one huge free flowing space that spans multiple levels. EEA’s use of materials inside is rather unexpected from the business like exterior. There is a giant brass “mural” wall adjoining the cafeteria dining/study area. The elevators are unfinished concrete shafts painted gold, and when you go into the staircase there is the surprising use of grey, pink, and peach stripes running down the stairway walls. These wall coverings contrast with the rich wood and slate floors, which are inlaid with wide stainless steel way finding lines.
EEA’s Popstage project of 2002 in Breda also makes use of large surfaces of warm toned surfaces of metal; in this case the entire building is clad in treated copper, juxtaposed not against glass and steel but a brick 1899 officer’s canteen on the former military base. The old building is restored and renovated, while a new windowless slug/seashell shape is added onto the building. The addition hides itself from the redeveloping military base but on the other hand it makes a very bold statement along the street side, which faces the entertainment district. Here EEA lets the free flowing interior space from the Inholland University building express itself in the exterior, all the while maintaining a balance and juxtaposition between regular and irregular forms. Where the old and the new building most visibly meet the free flowing form and copper material are carried inside the old building while at the same time the entire gable end wall is replaced with glass which exposes the blending the two forms. One other interesting thing to note is that on the form of the new building a lot of care is given to integrating the large vents on the roof, but it seems as if the doors for people and equipment were an afterthought and seemed as if they were cut in after the building was completed. Also the signage in front of the building uses a third completely different language of sharp angles and cor-ten steel. I cannot draw any significance or find any reasons for these last two moves.
Completed in 2002 the Mauritskade Apartment Building in Amsterdam is less radical and seemingly more in line with the firm’s progression than the Popstage. The building is meant to fit into its context by presenting a vertically articulated façade at the ends nearest the adjacent 19th century buildings, but it transforms itself along its façade to become horizontal as it wraps around the sharp corner of the site than transforms back again. In addition to playing with the façade and staggering the floors at the corner of the building EEA also creates a rising sensation by pitching the roof upwards to the corner and following that slope with the header of the windows on the first floor, rising from the parking to the café that occupies the corner of the building. Perhaps this is one of those historical context references to Amsterdam’s past, evoking the prow of a ship as does the nearby NEMO performing arts center. EEA again makes use of very sensuous materials this time using deep brownish-red wood framed windows against two tones of stone and the reflective metal panels that wrap the curve on the corner.
The last EEA project that I visited was completed in 2005 and houses offices, classrooms and study areas as well as a restaurant, while forming a new entrance to the hospital portion of the University of Utrecht campus. This building continues the use of a strongly articulated façade, this time using vertical bands with a seemingly random distribution of clear glass, reflective metal, and black stone. The exterior of the building maintains a uniform monolithic square form until one gets to the corner facing the university, where a huge curved chunk has been removed to emphasize that this building is a gateway from the university to the hospital. On the inside though all of the regularity disappears, with the free flowing space shown in the Inholland University building manifests itself in two floors of sloping warped planes, or as the architects refer to it on their website, the “study landscapes.” Above these two floors of public space are offices and classrooms, this time the spaces are layered horizontally. The whole building is penetrated by three cones of glass that allow light to penetrate into the interior of the building. These cones of glass also serve to connect the different levels of the building housing stairways and meeting spaces. I particularly appreciated how the venting was treated in this building with panels of glass, metal or slate tilting out of the façade independently and adding a little more chaos to the façade.
I think that over time EEA’s buildings have become clearer and more refined in their ability to translate free flowing space into form. This is especially evident on the leap from the Inholland University building to the ABC Faculty building at the University of Utrecht. The “everything is one” approach of the Inholland building has been refined and channeled so that space flows exactly where the architects direct it with their glass cones. I think that their ability to juxtapose regular and irregular forms has also progressed, from the Hotel expansion in Rotterdam to the Popstage to the Utrecht building the dialogue between the two kinds of forms has become interconnected until they fully interpenetrate each other rather than being separated by an atrium, or jut being joined at the hip. This free flowing or interpenetrating space is also considered one of the tenants of Baroque architecture. When complemented by sensuous materials of wood, stone, brass and copper, a new twist on using color, and the incorporation of the almost stained glass effects of highly pattered facades and cobalt glass it seems as if Erick van Egeraat is drawing on discarded ideas from the past and finding ways to make them new again.
From visiting these buildings and experiencing there sensual qualities first hand I think that I have learned a new appreciation for the job that materials have in making our buildings warm, which is often one of the largest criticisms of modern architecture. I would like eventually incorporate the rigor of strongly articulated facades without feeling the need to make the entire building reflect that decision. There is no reason why irregular or organic forms cannot be combined with modernism, as we have been shown going all the way back to le Corbusier, yet I still often make that assumption. Why not combine and juxtapose forms? Why not make steel and glass warm? I hope that someday I can incorporate these kinds of things within my own architecture, and still have the daring to take a risk and paint the elevators gold. And hey, if that fails you could just hang some chandeliers in the lobby, such as the ones at the University of Utrecht if that doesn’t prove your baroque than what does?
Starting with the earliest EEA building that I visited, a hotel addition in Rotterdam, which is Erick van Egeraats first building independent of the firm Mecanno, which he helped form before he had even graduated from the Technical University of Delft. This building was an extension onto an existing hotel building but it begins to set up some of the reoccurring themes that I found in the buildings that I visited. The hotel is conceptually divided into three volumes, a new tower, a vertical sliver of an atrium that brings light and vertical circulation to the lobby, and an older more squat volume of the existing building. These three volumes are layered vertically and stacked together like books in a bookcase. The new tower has an extruded curving freeform shape reminiscent of a piano. It is covered with metal scales, which along with inset horizontal windows accentuate the curving form and bring a strong sense of materiality that contrasts with the glass void of the atrium and the plain white volume of the earlier building.
Chronologically, the next building that I visited was the Inholland University building, also in Rotterdam, which was completed in 2000. This building continues to use the language of sandwiched vertical layers, this time reducing the material palate to glass of varying articulation and opacities. The south facing side of the building is clad in reflective glass articulated by staggered horizontal mullions, and houses the more public spaces of the building; a full height atrium lobby, meeting spaces, cafeteria and study areas below, with classrooms above. The center layer is a band of “cobalt blue screen processed glass” that represents the main horizontal circulation of the building. The north side of the building is covered in clear glass backed by white shades and houses the offices for the university. On the inside of this articulated box EEA freely places the public spaces on differing levels surrounding the huge full height atrium. In the openness of the interior the different spaces all seem to blend into one huge free flowing space that spans multiple levels. EEA’s use of materials inside is rather unexpected from the business like exterior. There is a giant brass “mural” wall adjoining the cafeteria dining/study area. The elevators are unfinished concrete shafts painted gold, and when you go into the staircase there is the surprising use of grey, pink, and peach stripes running down the stairway walls. These wall coverings contrast with the rich wood and slate floors, which are inlaid with wide stainless steel way finding lines.
EEA’s Popstage project of 2002 in Breda also makes use of large surfaces of warm toned surfaces of metal; in this case the entire building is clad in treated copper, juxtaposed not against glass and steel but a brick 1899 officer’s canteen on the former military base. The old building is restored and renovated, while a new windowless slug/seashell shape is added onto the building. The addition hides itself from the redeveloping military base but on the other hand it makes a very bold statement along the street side, which faces the entertainment district. Here EEA lets the free flowing interior space from the Inholland University building express itself in the exterior, all the while maintaining a balance and juxtaposition between regular and irregular forms. Where the old and the new building most visibly meet the free flowing form and copper material are carried inside the old building while at the same time the entire gable end wall is replaced with glass which exposes the blending the two forms. One other interesting thing to note is that on the form of the new building a lot of care is given to integrating the large vents on the roof, but it seems as if the doors for people and equipment were an afterthought and seemed as if they were cut in after the building was completed. Also the signage in front of the building uses a third completely different language of sharp angles and cor-ten steel. I cannot draw any significance or find any reasons for these last two moves.
Completed in 2002 the Mauritskade Apartment Building in Amsterdam is less radical and seemingly more in line with the firm’s progression than the Popstage. The building is meant to fit into its context by presenting a vertically articulated façade at the ends nearest the adjacent 19th century buildings, but it transforms itself along its façade to become horizontal as it wraps around the sharp corner of the site than transforms back again. In addition to playing with the façade and staggering the floors at the corner of the building EEA also creates a rising sensation by pitching the roof upwards to the corner and following that slope with the header of the windows on the first floor, rising from the parking to the café that occupies the corner of the building. Perhaps this is one of those historical context references to Amsterdam’s past, evoking the prow of a ship as does the nearby NEMO performing arts center. EEA again makes use of very sensuous materials this time using deep brownish-red wood framed windows against two tones of stone and the reflective metal panels that wrap the curve on the corner.
The last EEA project that I visited was completed in 2005 and houses offices, classrooms and study areas as well as a restaurant, while forming a new entrance to the hospital portion of the University of Utrecht campus. This building continues the use of a strongly articulated façade, this time using vertical bands with a seemingly random distribution of clear glass, reflective metal, and black stone. The exterior of the building maintains a uniform monolithic square form until one gets to the corner facing the university, where a huge curved chunk has been removed to emphasize that this building is a gateway from the university to the hospital. On the inside though all of the regularity disappears, with the free flowing space shown in the Inholland University building manifests itself in two floors of sloping warped planes, or as the architects refer to it on their website, the “study landscapes.” Above these two floors of public space are offices and classrooms, this time the spaces are layered horizontally. The whole building is penetrated by three cones of glass that allow light to penetrate into the interior of the building. These cones of glass also serve to connect the different levels of the building housing stairways and meeting spaces. I particularly appreciated how the venting was treated in this building with panels of glass, metal or slate tilting out of the façade independently and adding a little more chaos to the façade.
I think that over time EEA’s buildings have become clearer and more refined in their ability to translate free flowing space into form. This is especially evident on the leap from the Inholland University building to the ABC Faculty building at the University of Utrecht. The “everything is one” approach of the Inholland building has been refined and channeled so that space flows exactly where the architects direct it with their glass cones. I think that their ability to juxtapose regular and irregular forms has also progressed, from the Hotel expansion in Rotterdam to the Popstage to the Utrecht building the dialogue between the two kinds of forms has become interconnected until they fully interpenetrate each other rather than being separated by an atrium, or jut being joined at the hip. This free flowing or interpenetrating space is also considered one of the tenants of Baroque architecture. When complemented by sensuous materials of wood, stone, brass and copper, a new twist on using color, and the incorporation of the almost stained glass effects of highly pattered facades and cobalt glass it seems as if Erick van Egeraat is drawing on discarded ideas from the past and finding ways to make them new again.
From visiting these buildings and experiencing there sensual qualities first hand I think that I have learned a new appreciation for the job that materials have in making our buildings warm, which is often one of the largest criticisms of modern architecture. I would like eventually incorporate the rigor of strongly articulated facades without feeling the need to make the entire building reflect that decision. There is no reason why irregular or organic forms cannot be combined with modernism, as we have been shown going all the way back to le Corbusier, yet I still often make that assumption. Why not combine and juxtapose forms? Why not make steel and glass warm? I hope that someday I can incorporate these kinds of things within my own architecture, and still have the daring to take a risk and paint the elevators gold. And hey, if that fails you could just hang some chandeliers in the lobby, such as the ones at the University of Utrecht if that doesn’t prove your baroque than what does?
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