reflecto 228
prix de rome architecture
Design of a multifunctional building in the shape of a silver ‘Reflecto 228’ in cooperation with urban designer Ceciel Oud. The ‘Cloud Gate’ – a design of Anish Kapoor – is the inspiration for our own design.
Introduction of the square:
The Martin Visser Square is an agglomeration of traffic situated in the center of our capital. You can choose to use this giving in the design or bury the traffic under a building. We decided to use the business of this place to make it an attraction-point of the whole city of Amsterdam. To the Dutch, Amsterdam is a big and busy city. Comparing to other cities in the world, Amsterdam is just a small village with nice architecture and canals. To really put Amsterdam on the map we decided to emphasize this square as a metropolitan place — by showing all the movements in triple (cars, bicycles and pedestrians). Even the time of day will change the whole surrounding of the Martin Visserplein. At night, the city lights as well as the lights of traffic passing by will reflect in the ‘amorf’.
The square is designed as one big ground shape that can be accessed by car from the appending 4 main roads. When you access the ground shape you are attracted to one small entrance in the amorf. This entrance is the beginning of a journey into another world. This world is a serene place compared to the outer business. The smaller one-way roads connected to the ground shape make it possible to quickly pass the amorf and continue your journey to the city center of Amsterdam, or move to other parts of Holland. Therefore this square and amorf can not be missed!
The public place:
The public space is mixed with traffic in one big shape. You can see the cars and bicycles reflect in one big amorphous form in the center of the roads. It reflects the movements from outside in its mirror-works. The outside is therefore turned into a lively place with all the movements projected in the amorf. All the participants of public space can identify with this place. The cars can not pass without noticing the mirror-amorf showing their own driving in the mirror. This way the amorf slows down traffic, a welcome side-effect. The movements can be too much for the driver. Therefore there is a big inner circle to drive rounds around the shape. This can be for fun or just to recover from this new phenomena. Cyclists have more time to get used to this square because their pace is slower than that of cars. They can stop to watch all the movement. We can imagine this place as a meeting point for pedestrians to just stop, look around, and feel the vibration of everything together, before going on. It’ll probably take some time before the users of this space can shake this immense feeling off.
Function of the amorf:
The inside of the amorf is a serene place that can serve as a tourist information board annex cultural agency. This drive-informationpoint is accessible by car from the ground level.
Special details:
As an extra, there is a sandwich drive-in where you can order any kind of bread with dutch cheese in a whizz. Other small businesses can be attracted to this place, for example an automated drugstore. The upper part of the amorf is reserved a place to meditate and has an overview of the whole area.
