The project in Hilversum went in a more advanced phase in the last two weeks. I worked on the plans under the supervision of Rene. The client had high expectations in terms of the number of apartments that we can fit on the site. After a lot of work and different approaches, it turned out there is no way to fit the apartments on the site, because of lack of parking spaces. The project is a gallery-access building on the request of the investor. I created the plan of the underground parking, and based on it the plan of apartments above. After this phase we could focus on working on the facade.
As it is a commision based on the choice between couple offices (sort of a small competition) there are things that the office pays special attention to, such as the elevations. I was gathering inspirations for the possible appearence of the facade. Together with Rene we narrowed the material choice to brick or corten steel. However, the brick is more economic and traditional in this area. During the sixth week I was working on possible arrangements of the facade – using brick we can create different, interesting patterns. This way the building can be simple and cheaper, but attractive to the investor and clients. Rene underlined the importance of the effect of the building to get the commission.
My HE also told me a bit about the legal aspects of architectural construction in the Netherlands. The constructor here has more legal responsibility than for example in Poland. He is responsible for the eventual damages that result from badly drawn construction, unless he specifically objects to them. This is quite helpful for the architects, as they can have more freedom in creative decisions. It is important to know about the legal differences to conduct international cooperations later.
