Music Building / BIMhuis

Front cafe in the evening.

Project details

• Project Name: Het Muziekgebouw / BIMhuis (Music Building / BIMhuis)
• Client: Municipality of Amsterdam
• Project Type: Public building
• Architect: 3XN Architects / Kim Herforth Nielsen, Bo Boje Larsen, Kim Christiansen
• Design Team: Kim Herforth Nielsen (principal architect) with Palle Holsting (project managing architect), Rasmus Kristian Holm, Torben Ostergaard, Ole Ostergaard, Uffe Bay-Schmidt, Flemming Christiansen, Eva Hard, Troels Chresten Hojlund, Poul Jorgensen.
• Local Architect: ABT
• Contractor/s: BAM BV, The Netherlands
• Date of commencement of project: 1997
• Date of completion of project: 2005
• Location of site: Piet Heinkade 1, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Built-up Area: 18.000 m²
• Cost of Construction: € 45,000,000

Words from the 3XN Architects on Het Muziekgebouw / BIMHUIS (Music Building / BIMhuis)

Situation

The Music Building has a unique location at the head of Piet Heinkade.

It faces the Fjord Ij on two sides, and also the canal of Zouthaven and the bypassing road.

It has a fourth facade towards the tall, neighboring hotel and the suspended plaza, and last, but not least, a fifth facade towards the sky; visible to the hotel residents and cruise ship passengers. This highly exposed location is exploited to all of it's potential.

Three important aspects have been addressed:

• Transparency - the building reveals its interior.
• Light - a flood of daylight shapes the elements. At night time light is given back, turning the building into a lantern.
• Human - being a landmark gesture towards the Ij, the building is never the less dissolved into human scale details on approach.

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