Plug-in resilient accommodation

Gerrit Rietveld Academy arranged a competition for an architectural expansion of the academy. Alumni, teachers and anybody linked to the academy were welcome to take part in the competition. 12 teams would compete with their proposals and 6 of them would go further to finalise a sketch design together with an assigned architect. Our team Eelco Wagenaar, David van der Veldt and myself all alumni teamed up and got through to the second round of the competition with our proposal. In the second round we were joined by architect Bart Teunissen.

Our concept is based on a strategy of resilience. Awareness arose that the specifications for the additional space to be built are based on assumptions and predictions made for the future. As these predictions are influenced by the political, economical, sociocultural and even technological developments, we felt it would not be most logical to build the 3500 m2 directly as specified, but instead build a minimal critical structure with adaptive capacity.

In our concept it is a structure that holds the possibility to make extensions by means of plug-ins. The designed structure forms a physical connector between the two existing buildings and functions itself as a hub and meeting place. It is designed to fit as much sustainable features as possible; ranging from green facade to grey water circuit, a waste disposal and recycle area. All of these components are laid out to have an as small as possible carbon foot- print. For the structure itself it is possible to dismantle and recycle the (steel) parts, except for the concrete foundation.

Team: David van der Veldt, Eelco Wagenaar, Bart Teunissen
Role: Concept development, Visual design