Urban Sustainability at 360 Degrees in Amsterdam

Connected.

This unique building by client Amvest, featuring 110 rental apartments and commercial spaces, is visible from the centre of Amsterdam and is located right on the IJ water.

The apartment building has no distinct front or back facade and appears different from every perspective, connecting to the surrounding neighbourhoods. Instead of creating one huge, solid volume, two slim towers merge underneath into a terraced podium. The gradual colour progression in the facade emphasises this principle.

The two adjacent towers are placed in such a way that they don’t block each other’s views and all apartments on the podium feature spacious roof gardens with a sunny orientation or facing the Tolhuiskanaal.

Their balconies create a friendly transition from the low scale of the surrounding buildings to the two towers.

The gradual increase in window openings gives the building a more airy presence as it rises. By fully enclosing the two resident entrances with glass, the architects ensured that the stone walls that extend inside are exposed to the passers-by.

Blackpepper Facade

At an early stage of this project, Studioninedots approached StoneCycling to convert the gradient that had been developed for the facade in collaboration with Architectural Materials Amsterdam (AMA) into WasteBasedBricks®.

In the design, the base of the building (the darkest layer) is made entirely of WasteBasedBricks® in the Blackpepper ‘flavour’. 152.585 KG of waste has been given a new destination in this process.

The challenge of the facade effect, which gradually transitions from black to white is that we had to search for pure white construction waste as well as pure black, and various shades of grey to blend the two.

Cityplot Buiksloterham presents architecture, public space and landscape as one complete integrated system that will keep evolving over time.

The interrelationship between residents and the sustainable systems will contribute to a future-proof area, showcasing flexible models of development as an innovative urban ‘living lab’.

360 Twins forms an integral part of Cityplot Buiksloterham and therefore shares its ambitions based on flexibility, circularity and social sustainability.