Boele & van Eesteren head offices

In September 2006, architecten van Mourik began to design the office premises at plot 6 of the Laan van Vredenoord, in Hoornwijck, Rijswijk, in an assignment for OVG project development. This is the location diagonally across from the current Boele & van Eesteren offices. The urban development plan has an ascending building height of 3 to 5 layers, on the Rotterdamseweg. This prominent location required a distinct building volume in an L-shape alongside the existing Nokia building. The car park is kept out of sight as far as possible in a semi sunken parking garage, accessible via a shared slope in the middle. On the Laan van Vredenoord side, the existing view of a green strip and semi sunken parking garage, is continued in the new building with an open gallery and pergola. The offices are to house two tenants, one of which is Boele & van Eesteren. Each tenant has an own entrance, on the semi raised parking deck. The two building sections will each have their own identity. We were looking for a rational yet chic building like a neat made-to-measure suit, in which the differences in identity can be expressed by means of refined use of materials and details. These differences in identity have been sought in the various building heights, variety of colours of brickwork and differences in the window details. The building volume has a strict facade rhythm of vertical windows every 1.80 metres, for clear division of rooms. The tall, straight Boele section has a ground floor and four storeys with the entrance at the corner. The low, L-shaped leased section comprises a ground floor and two storeys with a central entrance in the elbow. The high Boele section is stately and ’smooth', built in mottled light grey brickwork with aluminium window frames as flush as possible in the facade. The lower building section is also stately , but ‘roughly’ built in mottled dark grey brickwork with protruding aluminium borders around the slightly receded aluminium window frames. The facade rhythm is interrupted by large fixed windows, in order to accentuate the striking corners of both building sections. This gives very special indoor areas with lovely views of the Hoornbrug bridge and Rotterdamseweg, without disturbing the interior division, and allows opening of the windows around the corner. The masonry facades of the two building sections are rendered detached from one another by a receded strip. Both building sections have an identical structure of prefab concrete facade bearing elements in a 7.20 m grid scale. The intermediate floors have a free span of 14.40 m, allowing flexible division of the office spaces and central zone. The parking deck too is made from prefab concrete columns, beams and double T girders with a free span of 23 m, giving good division options for the semi sunken parking garage.