Villa VPRO
General Information
The Villa VPRO is an office building that was built between 1993 and 1997 by MVRDV for the broadcasting corporation VPRO. It is the office's first realised project.[1] The building is located in Hilversum, a town southeast of Amsterdam.[2]
Development Process
VPRO was originally located in 13 separate villas with a casual work environment throughout the houses, e.g. work spaces in the attic and studios in the basement. This company history played an important role in the identity of the company and MVRDV was faced with the task of bringing this informality into the new office building.[3]
Influences
The project shows influences of the work of OMA, where two of the three members of MVRDV, Winy Maas and Jacob Van Rijs, worked before founding MVRDV. The draft of OMA's educatorium and MVRDV's Villa VPro resemble each other that much, that “Koolhaas accused MVRDV of plagiarism” at some point.[4]
Kunsthal
In the Kunsthal, the “final analysis is configured around a single route”.[5] The “sloping” floor planes and a series of ramps connect the different rooms throughout the building.[6] The way of creating a way through the building that is shown there is also incorporated in the design of the Villa VPRO but in contrast to the Kunsthal there are multiple ways to wander through the building and connect levels. This principle produces maximum communication, the outcome MVRDV was aiming for.[5]
Jussieu Library Competition
The competition entry for the Jussieu Libraries by OMA first showed the possibility of designing non-horizontal floors. The main difference between this project and the fact, that the floors of the Villa VPRO are vertically and horizontally cut through by voids, whereas the libraries floor plans were complete.[5]
Design
Three essential elements in the design were
1. the compactness of the building to avoid long corridors,
2. the spatial differentiation within and
3. the relationship to the surrounding landscape.[3]
The compactness was a result of the city's restrictions regarding the overall height of the building, which made it a very deep building (50mx50m) in comparison to its height of 21m that is divided into roughly six floors. Precise cut-outs made it possible to have natural light in the inner parts of the building. The whole office space is planned out very openly, with minimum boundaries within and to the outside.[3]
Because of the open space concept the floors are not only horizontally but also vertically connected. The way through the building is connected by ramps, stepped floors, monumental steps and small rises.[7] In the case of the entry through the parking space on the first level the ceiling lifts to the second floor ceiling where it connects in one corner. The whole building appears to consist of “folded floor plans” without a facade, “where a floor plane curls up towards the next storey like the fin of a manta ray” and “at another point a floor is folded double like a pancake”.[5]
Interior
The interior spacing does not follow a specific orientation but is described as a “flow of sculpturally shaped chunks of air”.[5] This leads to a lot of visual axes that follow no hierarchy because of their vertical, horizontal and diagonal variety. The undefined spacing and three-dimensional orientation also constitutes the design idea of a built office landscape with multiple routes to reach the green rooftop. From an economic point of view, the amount of staircases and ramps would not be seen as being profitable but they provide the connection between floors and groups to lead to a maximum of communication.[5]
Because of the different heights of the adjacent ground, the ground floor is part-basement. It contains studios and production areas as well as technical areas. Visitors will access the building through a staircase that travels through the folded ceiling of the first-floor ceiling. It connects the outside space of the parking garage to the inside of the main entrance hall. That entrance hall with a reception is mainly lit through the outside patios that cut through the building.[5]
The absence of space defining walls makes it possible to see through the whole depth of the building in multiple areas. The following floors can be accessed and walked through through several different sized staircases that sometimes connect through voids or platforms.[5]
To provide the space with the possibility of isolated workspaces, “soundproof cells” with leather curtains are placed in semi-circles to outer and inner facades, as well as small boxes without windows that can be used for more permanent separation.[5] A large vertically diagonal space that cuts through the third, fourth and fifth level forms the restaurant area with small enclosed backspaces and access to the roof.
Facade
Originally, there were plans to leave the facade and work with hot air streams to not disturb the image of the design, but for energy reasons, the office decided to go with rose-windows that have different colourings to provide different atmospheres in the building.[5] The facade contributes by its transparency to the spatial and programmatic readability of the building, transforming it into a section.[3]
In the final design, 35 different sorts of glass were used to reflect the different rooms that were positioned behind them, as well as position and height of the glass. The differences became visible in form of degree of transparency, colour and reflectivity.[3]
Construction
The construction of the building was set out to be as flexible as possible, with technical outlets in the floor that do not interfere with possible changing furniture arrangements.[5] The “stone” floors resemble the material of the “old” villas, leaving the interior as rough as possible, while hiding the technical facilities in the hollow floor.[3]
The building's structure is supported by a grid of columns and stabilising diagonal connections.[3] Storage space exists only in the form of cabinets that are placed around the supporting columns.[5]
Criticism
Being the first project by MVRDV the architects went with several decisions that experienced designers would never have done. They decided to build a complex and completely open office building with a lot of sound and noise with rough materials such as glass and concrete. Because it was not possible to determine the needed acoustic material, VPRO moved into the building without soundproofing installed and then work schedules were tested and acoustics optimised.
At the time the media titled the building “the worst office ever built”, but twenty years later the office concept is more relevant than ever.[8]
References
- ↑ "Villa VPRO Headquarters by MVRDV Architects in Hilversum". ArchEyes. 2020-05-18. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
- ↑ Viva, Arquitectura. "Villa VPRO, Hilversum - MVRDV". Arquitectura Viva. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Márquez Cecilia, Fernando (1998). MVRDV : 1991 - 1997. Artificial Ecologies - Ecologías artificiales. El Croquis. pp. 88–89. ISBN 9770212568001 Check
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- ↑ "Dutch architecture". Amura Yachts & Lifestyle. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
- ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 "De architectuur van het interieur / Architecture of the interior. MVRDV: Villa VPRO". Archis. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
- ↑ "Kunsthal". OMA. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
- ↑ Viva, Arquitectura. "Villa VPRO, Hilversum - MVRDV". Arquitectura Viva. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
- ↑ BauNetz. "MVRDV und die Villa VPRO - Stories - baunetz interior|design". www.baunetz-id.de. Retrieved 2021-05-25.
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