new administration building of the royal · the concrete facade is covered with dark natural stone...

Machabäerstr 5D-50668 KölnPh +49 221 9624941Fa +49 221 9624942www.wansleben-architekten .deKoninklijke Marechaussee op de Marinzekazerne te Amsterdam

KMAR press release

Koninklijke Marechaussee op de Marinzekazerne te AmsterdamKMAR

Machabäerstr 5D-50668 KölnPh +49 221 9624941Fa +49 221 9624942www.wansleben-architekten .de

press release - text

New administration building of the royal Marechaussee on the Navy-Barracks in Amsterdam, Kattenburgerstraat 7

Numerous ambitious architectural projects, among oth-ers on Java-Ijland, Zeeburg and on the Westerkade, de-veloped a specific Amsterdam architecture along its dif-ferent waterfronts during the past years. An area at the Oosterdock, adjoining to the National Maritime Muse-um (Scheepvaartmuseum) and near the central station, awaked the desires of the Amsterdam municipality to remedy the chronic shortage of residential buildings in the city centre. However, the area’s owner -the Dutch Navy- defended itself against municipal claims. While the Navy used the area ineffectively, it has prestigious and historically significance for them: Here the Dutch Navy took, in the course of the foundation of the VOC (United Dutch East Asia Company), its beginnings.

On behalf of the Navy, the Cologne architect Norbert Wansleben developed a concept based on local-histori-cal and typological metaphors that extrapolate the mili-tary as well as the recent architectural tradition of Am-sterdam: He sketched a fortress that communicates with the city.

Coming from the city centre, crossing one of the many Amsterdam bridges, the National Maritime Museum opens an urban sequence –on one side bordered by water, on the other side by a wall. Responding to the Maritime Museum, Wansleben’s building now makes the spatial sequence complete. Like the National Mari-time Museum the new building is a cube. The concrete facade is covered with dark natural stone and 1750

windows of the identical dimension, arranged in a strict grid. While the „well-fortified construction“ thereby becomes intransparent -there are on view height con-sciously no windows- it still communicates: At daytime the glass reflects the water movements and the sur-rounding, at night the facade changes its patterns ac-cording to illuminated rooms.

Wansleben says: „It is for me architecture is about ambivalences between protection and presentation, meaning and riddles, order and chaos, formal and infor-mal. Such ambivalences stimulate a second, repeated view. The curiosity of the viewer is the real aim: The building makes an unpredictable difference for those who experience it.“

The subject of the fortress extrapolates itself in the structural characteristics: The authorised users access the building via ramps and folding gates reaching a two-level inner courtyard: on the lower level, this court is a parking level, on the higher level it is a garden covered with greenery. Here the building opens by generous windows; accordingly the offices are light-flooded. Col-ourfully glazed wooden panels engender recollections of northern summers. While the outer facade wraps the building as a protecting shield and creates distance, the inner courtyard promises a pleasant working envi-ronment.

The architectural public of Amsterdam distinguished Wanslebens building by the nomination for the Amster-dam Architecture Price in 2009 (Gouden AAP 2009); and the Navy was so contented about its fortress that it staged an “assault” – with real tanks and (loud, but harmless) grenades.



design explanation

Design explanation

The “KMAR - Koninklijke Marechaussee” can be de-scribed best as a police organisation with military sta-tus. Organizationally it is since 1998 beside the army, the navy and the air force the fourth independent or-ganisation unity of the Dutch ministry of defence.

In this design we tried to plumb the tension between

Rule + ExceptionRepetition + VariationStatics + KineticsSurface + StructureContext + ObjectMeaning + RiddleGroup + IndividualOrder + ChaotikVariety + Simplicity

In this we see an expression for the ambivalent situa-tion of the users, between the institution and the indi-vidual whom you serve, between the policeman as a function in the uniform and the person in it, between the society which demands security, but which looks at security forces doubtfully.

Through this the building receives meaning and can step in a dialogue with the viewer and user. It speaks to the town which has produced it.

It provides a message about its identity to veil this also at the same time.

One figures to understand the building very fast, how-ever, with closer looking the uncertanties rise again. Is the building dark or bright? Is it closed or transparent? How many floors does it have actually? These ques-tions cannot be answered any more unambiguously. Additionaly different lighting conditions and weather cause different impressions.

The viewer forms his own judgment which is valid however only for the moment. The next encounter, the second look, leads to other perceptions.

To mark the project in his meaning of utilisation, the typology of the fortress was chosen. Characteristics like the access about a ramp by a folding gate on a higher situated court or the spiral staircases between the floors are to be led back here.

Town planningly it is a counterpart to the National Mari-time Museum (Scheepvaartmuseum) and forms thus the begin and the end of a spatial urban sequence.



office profile

Office Profile

Norbert Wansleben, born 1954 and native of Cologne, gained a remarkable reputation for his inner-city and city-peripheral projects as an independent architect. The office –founded in 1987- focuses on residential buildings and areas as well as office- and commercial properties.

Extra attention is paid to integrating individual solutions into heterogeneous contexts. Many projects involve the conversion of former industrial areas.

Numerous projects were honored by different prizes, rewards and honorable mentions. 1987 Wansleben taught at the department of housing at the RWTH-Aachen, from 1995-98 he had a teaching assignment for the subject area “Planning and building in existing structures”. The transfer from design- and structural theories into practical planning characterizes the office-philosophy.

The rising importance of converting existing struc-tures and quarters requires a contemporary discussion about context. “Wansleben-Architekten” react with a structural conception of the location. Not the ques-tion of style but of attitude is emphasized. This attitude consists in an analysis of local histories; this analysis then influences the choice of architectonical resources, functionality and constructive logic. Finally, the design of new buildings aims at connecting these buildings to existing textures.

This approach leads to individual, project-centered solu-tions. What units all projects is the comprehensibility of design decisions. Through the interference of logical segments complexity arises.

Characteristic for Wansleben’s projects is the sensible selection of basic materials such as exposed concrete, steel and wood: Compare projects such as the Konin-klijke Marechaussee in Amsterdam (2009), the rational construction of structurally autonomic elements like the Port Event Center in the MediaHarbour in Düssel-dorf (2002) or the composition of single “houses” to-gether constituting the day-care-center “Zipfelmützen” in Cologne (1995, honorable mention Kölner Architek-turpreis).

The highly communicative architecture of Wansleben’s office has proved successful, especially in solution-ori-ented collaborations with private principals, public au-thorities and developers.

Among the outstanding realized projects, there are the conversion of the former textile factory “Ermen und Engels” in Engelskirchen to a town-hall, industrial mu-seum, dwellings and business enterprises (in collabo-ration with Baucoop Köln 1986; “Walter Hesselbach Award”, honorable mention “Deutscher Architektur-preis”), conversion of a former Prussian provisions-storage at the “Rheinauhafen Cologne” to “Bürger-haus Stollwerk” (in collaboration with Baucoop Köln, 1987; honorable mention “Mies van der Rohe Award”, “Kölner Architekturpreis” 1990), the residential com-plex “Zum Gremberger Wäldchen” in Cologne (1993, advancement award “Junge Architekten”), the new warehouse “Köln Advent” in Cologne-Mülheim (1996, exhibited as exemplary commercial property during the Cologne architectural-week “Plan99”), the Port Event-center at the MediaHarbour Düsseldorf including the so-called “Wolkenbügel” (horizontal skyscraper) (2002, Fire-Protection Award) and last but not least the

Koninklijke Marechaussee in Amsterdam as Wansle-ben’s contribution to an international competition in-vited by the Dutch Ministry of Defence (2009, nomi-nated for the Golden Amsterdams Architecture Award (Gouden AAP2009)).



north elevation



south-west elevtion



inner courtyard



urban design

Kattenburger Str.

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Oosterdok



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datas

KMAR

Koninklijke Marechausseop de Marinekazerne te Amsterdam

adress

Koninklijke Marechaussee Kattenburgerstraat 7NL-1018 JA Amsterdam, NL

Client

Ministerie van DefensieDVD Directie Noord, Projektleiter Raymond BakkerZwolle, NLwww.defensie.nl

Occupant

Ministerie van DefensieKMAR - Koninklijke Marechaussee District Westwww.defensie.nl/marechaussee

Designated use

administrative building and parking

Architecture

Wansleben-ArchitektenMachabäerstr. 5D-50 668 KölnGermanywww.wansleben-architekten.de

Architect

Norbert Wansleben

Project leader

realization: Christian Kortefeasibility studies: Peter Schmidtdesign: Martin Güldenberg

Total Engineering

Wansleben-ArchitektenMachabäerstr. 5D-50 668 KölnGermanywww.wansleben-architekten.de

Competition 2001/03

Construction period 2006/12 – 2009/3

GFA ca. 6.500 qm

effective area ca. 6.000 qm

costs ca. 14 Mio. Euro incl. BTW / vat



information

Dimension

- edge length: 42,80m / 42,80m- storeys: 5- hight : 18m

Construction

- foundation: 119 prefab reinforced concrete piles, depth ca. 22m- outer facade: precast concrete, rear ventilated- load-bearing structure: precast concrete elements, surface decorative concrete- columns: precast concrete, decorative concrete- ceilings parking levels: hollow core concrete floors - ceilings administration levels: filigree concrete system, integrated concrete core activation, false floor system- façade of the patio: zinc-coated steel plates, rear- ventilated, 138 motorized wooden panels as shading elements; fire-resistant glass as mullion - mullion-transom-facade in decorative concrete

Outer facade

- 105 prefabricated concrete elements - surface exposed aggregate concrete with labrador and basalt-aggregate, reveals decorative concrete- window vents per element: 4x4- 1.758 aluminium windows

Photovoltaics

- 84 St. Fronius IG 60, as glass louvres laminate- fixture by use of „Fischer Hinterschnittanker“

Geothermics

- drilling depth: ca. 109m- cooling capability geothermics: 155 kWt- thermal output geothermics: 310 kWt- average of infiltration geothermics p.a.: 60.000kbm



consultants

Projectmanagement

Architec Hoofdorp, NLwww.architec.nl

Construction

ArupAmsterdam, NL

www.arup.com

HVACR

ArupAmsterdam, NLwww.arup.com

Tender Process

Uythoven Bouw AdviesAmstelveen, NLwww.uythoven-advies.nl

Building Physics

Schreuder GroepGroningen, NLwww.schreuder.nl

DGMRArnhem, NL

www.dgmr.nl

Geothermy

IF TechnologyArnhem, NLwww.iftechnology.nl

Landscaping

EGL Plan GmbHHamburgwww.egl-plan.de



contractors (extract)

General Contractor

Ter Steege Bouw RijssenRijssen, NLwww.tersteege-bouw.nl

Installation

Van Dam Groep Installatie Rijssen, NLwww.vandamgroep.com

Pre-Fab Concrete

Hering Bau GmbH & Co. KGBurbach, D

www.heringinternational.com

Safety Engineering

HoneywellAmsterdam, NLwww.honeywell.com

Photovoltaics, outer Sun Protection

Colt InternationalKatwijk, NL

www.colt-info.nl

Steelwork

Schooten contructiebedrijfRijssen, NL

www.schooten.nl

Aluminium Windows

PolybouwRijssen, NL

www.polybouw.nl

Wooden Windows

De Kock van Gelder Beneden-Leeuwen, NLwww.kockvangelder.nl

Gates

Belu TecLingen, Dwww.belutec.com

Steelnet Staircase

Carl Stahl GmbHSüssen, D

www.carlstahl.de

new administration building of the royal · the concrete facade is covered with dark natural stone...

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