The construction of Tripolis Park, which renovates and transforms one of the last projects completed by the celebrated Dutch modernist architect Aldo van Eyck, is completed by MVRDV. On behalf of developer Flow 

MVRDV restored two of the three listed heritage buildings in line with Van Eyck's original designs and added a 12-storey "landscraper" along the edge of the site to shelter the complex (which includes Van Eyck's Amsterdam Orphanage next door) from noise and dust generated by the adjacent A10 highway, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 

The new building is careful in its relationship with the heritage buildings, keeping a respectful distance so that an exciting in-between space emerges where the two meet, with bridges crossing overhead to connect old and new.

The creation of Tripolis by MVRDV, a trio of idiosyncratic office buildings of 11,000, 8,000, and 6,000 square metres, was inextricably linked to Van Eyck's masterpiece, the Amsterdam Orphanage.

Completed in 1960, the orphanage was one of the most important projects of the Structuralist movement, yet by 1986 it was already threatened with demolition. A successful international campaign was launched to save the orphanage, and the municipality of Amsterdam offered the adjacent land to the developer - on the condition that Aldo and Hannie van Eyck should design the new office complex. In 1994, their new design was completed, and thus Tripolis began its life as the symbolic saviour of the orphanage.

Tripolis Park is complete: Aldo van Eyck's final work renovated and protected by an office landscraper

Tripolis Park by MVRDVPhotograph by Ossip van Duivenbode.

Tripolis Park by MVRDV. Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode.

MVRDV's design makes the next step in this history. The original Tripolis did not prove commercially successful, standing empty for years. Meanwhile, an upcoming expansion of the adjacent A10 highway, which includes a new on-ramp right alongside the Tripolis site, threatened to bring increased noise and pollution. Like the orphanage in the 1980s, the Tripolis buildings, in turn, needed an intervention to ensure their future. Following archival research and close collaboration with Van Eyck's heirs, MVRDV's design has restored the buildings' façades not to their original state, but one step better: to Van Eyck's initial designs. For example, the façades are now fully clad in wood, unlike the cheaper wood and granite combination requested by the Tripolis developer in the 1990s. The building's multi-coloured window frames are also retained.

Inside, the renovation keeps characteristic elements such as the staircases and the natural stone floors, but it also adapts the buildings to bring them in line with modern standards, where offices are increasingly seen as spaces for meeting and collaborating. Dividing walls have been removed, so that the building is less compartmentalised, while various interventions make the building more sustainable. The roofs are now used more intensively, with greenery and pavilions that enable interaction between all users of the complex and which can be used for events. Solar panels are also introduced, helping the development achieve BREEAM Outstanding sustainability certification.

Tripolis Park by MVRDVPhotograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

Tripolis Park by MVRDV. Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode.

The project isn't just a renovation, however: a 12-storey landscraper known as "The Window" stands on the edge of the plot, pushed as close as possible to the A10, to form a protective wall between the highway and the rest of the site. A large rectangular window has been cut from the gridded south facade of the 34,000-square-metre office building, offering a view of the original Tripolis complex to emphasise the project's heritage aspects. On the other side of the building, the northern facade responds playfully to the Tripolis buildings, indented by an "echo" of their complex shapes. This intervention creates an undulating interior, an exciting, low-noise intermediate space where bridges connect the old and new buildings.

Tripolis Park by MVRDVPhotograph by Ossip van Duivenbode

Tripolis Park by MVRDV. Photograph by Ossip van Duivenbode.

"Demolition of heritage is always the easy option, especially if it is located in a business district dominated by high-rise buildings.

Tripolis Park offers an approach to protecting heritage that at the same time meets people's expectations for an office today. It combines this with new densification, a continuation of the development at Amsterdam Zuidas, that doesn't copy Van Eyck's intention but creates a new one, like a new layer in time. And it celebrates the in-between which, as Aldo explained to me when I was a student, is one of the main sources of beauty in architecture."

MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas.

With Tripolis Park, Van Eyck's monument is re-established within the current office rental market, evident in the fact that it has attracted two prestige tenants in Uber and law firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek. In the coming years, work will continue on the third of the original Tripolis buildings. The greening of the site, which will be easily accessible via walking and cycling paths from the other parts of the Zuidas and the nearby metro station, will also continue, forming a park-like campus in which Aldo van Eyck's buildings - from 1960 and 1994 alike - are sheltered and preserved.

More information

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Architects
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MVRDV. Founding Partner in charge.- Winy Maas. Director.- Gideon Maasland. Associate Design. Director.- Gijs Rikken. Project Leader.- Rik Lambers, Bob de Rijk.

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Project team
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Steven Anton, Roxana Aron, Guido Boeters, Teodora Cirjan, Joao Viaro Correa, Guillermo Corella Dekker, Karolina Duda, Cas Esbach, Valentina Fantini, Rico van de Gevel, Piotr Janus, Nika Koraca, Urszula Kuczma, Claudia Mainardi, Sanne van Manen, Rugile Ropolaite, Irgen Salianji, Maxime Sauce, Claudia Storelli, Karolina Szóstkiewicz, Laurens Veth, Olesya Vodenicharska, Mark van Wasbeek, Mariya Badeva, Rebecca Fiorentino, Nefeli Stamatari, Michele Tavola,Aleksandra Wypiór.

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Collaborators
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Visualisations: Antonio Luca Coco, Luca Piattelli, Kirill Emelianov, Pavlos Ventouris, Francesco Vitale.
Co-architect: Powered by EGM.
Project coordination: Toussaint Project Management. 
Landscape architect: Deltavormgroep. 
Structural engineer: Van Rossum Raadgevende Ingenieurs. 
Installations consultancy: Arcadis.
MEP: Bosman Bedrijven.
Cost calculation: BBN.
Building Physics & Environmental Advisor: DGMR. 
Interior architect: Concrete.

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Client
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Flow Development.

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Contractor
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G&S Bouw.

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Area
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61,000m². 

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Dates
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2018–2023.

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Location
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Tripolis Park, Burgerweeshuispad 101, 1076 ER Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

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Program
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Offices, Public amenities.

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Photography
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MVRDV was founded in 1993 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The practice engages globally in providing solutions to contemporary architectural and urban issues. A highly collaborative, research-based design method involves clients, stakeholders and experts from a wide range of fields from early on in the creative process. The results are exemplary, outspoken projects, which enable our cities and landscapes to develop towards a better future.

The products of MVRDV’s unique approach to design vary, ranging from buildings of all types and sizes, to urban plans and visions, numerous publications, installations and exhibitions. Built projects include the Netherlands Pavilion for the World EXPO 2000 in Hannover; the Market Hall, a combination of housing and retail in Rotterdam; the Pushed Slab, a sustainable office building in Paris’ first eco-district; Flight Forum, an innovative business park in Eindhoven; the Silodam Housing complex in Amsterdam; the Matsudai Cultural Centre in Japan; the Unterföhring office campus near Munich; the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam; the Ypenburg housing and urban plan in The Hague; the Didden Village rooftop housing extension in Rotterdam; the music centre De Effenaar in Eindhoven; the Gyre boutique shopping center in Tokyo; a public library in Spijkenisse; an international bank headquarters in Oslo, Norway; and the iconic Mirador and Celosia housing in Madrid.

Current projects include a variety of housing projects in the Netherlands, France, China, India, and other countries; a community centre in Copenhagen and a cultural complex in Roskilde, Denmark, a public art depot in Rotterdam, the transformation of a mixed use building in central Paris, an office complex in Shanghai, and a commercial centre in Beijing, and the renovation of an office building in Hong Kong. MVRDV is also working on large scale urban masterplans in Bordeaux and Caen, France and the masterplan for an eco-city in Logroño, Spain. Larger scale visions for the future of greater Paris, greater Oslo, and the doubling in size of the Dutch new town Almere are also in development.

MVRDV first published a manifesto of its work and ideas in FARMAX (1998), followed by MetaCity/Datatown (1999), Costa Iberica (2000), Regionmaker (2002), 5 Minutes City (2003), KM3 (2005), Spacefighter (2007) and Skycar City (2007), and more recently The Vertical Village (with The Why Factory, 2012) and the firm’s first monograph of built works MVRDV Buildings (2013). MVRDV deals with issues ranging from global sustainability in large scale studies such as Pig City, to small, pragmatic architectural solutions for devastated areas such as New Orleans.

The work of MVRDV is exhibited and published worldwide and has received numerous international awards. One hundred architects, designers and urbanists develop projects in a multi-disciplinary, collaborative design process which involves rigorous technical and creative investigation. MVRDV works with BIM and has official in-house BREEAM and LEED assessors.

Together with Delft University of Technology, MVRDV runs The Why Factory, an independent think tank and research institute providing an agenda for architecture and urbanism by envisioning the city of the future.

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Published on: October 22, 2024
Cite: "Tripolis Park. Aldo van Eyck's work renovated and protected by MVRDV" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/tripolis-park-aldo-van-eycks-work-renovated-and-protected-mvrdv> ISSN 1139-6415
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