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Architects: Space Encounters
- Area: 1600 m²
- Year: 2016
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Photographs:Charlotte Odijk
Text description provided by the architects. Space Encounters won the pitch to design and construct the new Joolz headquarters in a former machine factory building in Amsterdam-Noord. The designer and manufacturer of ergonomic pushchairs is a fast-growing Dutch company from Amsterdam which aims to do things differently. Joolz has a strong ideological agenda when it comes to responsible entrepreneurship. Key to the new building should be their core value: positive design.
The new office measures 1.600 m2 and is located in the developmental area of Amsterdam-Noord and consists of a spacious industrial hall and a generic office building. It's obvious where the quality and character resides, but unfortunately, the office blocks the hall from view from passersby. The first step to nullify this disbalance in quality is taken by removing all the walls on the ground floor, making the hall visible from the street. Subsequently large openings are made in the office buildings facade, further removing all associations of mediocrity.
The new glazing is placed under an angle to -in line with the brands beliefs – improve transparency. But the main intervention are three lavish gardens filled with trees, plants, birds and fish. Extruded from three of the existing roof lights, they echo the scale and logic of what was already there. Next to express the Joolz ideology by providing a pleasant backdrop for the daily routines, these large glazed gardens also improve the internal climate and provide employees with some more exotic choices to pick as their work location for the day.
