Kunstlinie

The Kunstlinie(2006) designed by Japanese Architects, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, is a theatre located in Almere's city centre. The building is located on the shore of the "Weerwater" lake.

The building contains two large theatres, offices, and a number of ancillary spaces for smaller performances, rehearsals and administration. The planning of the spaces is achieved without the use of corridors or hallways meaning people pass through different spaces and functions to reach their destination. Throughout the building views to the water and various qualities of light are visible through the glass facades. The thinness of detailing that is typical of SANAA's work is noticeable in the Kunstlinie although the materials and detailing were made thicker by the Dutch construction company to satisfy dutch building regulations, satisfy acoustic and thermal insulation requirements and be suitable for the Dutch climate.

The building is a welcome and calming piece of architecture in Almere which exhibits considerably more restraint than it's neighbours. It successfully establishes a stronger relationship with the water and the various lighting effects and reflections that it causes than it does with the new city center.

The interior spaces are minimally detailed and predominantly white. Openings often replace an entire wall and load bearing walls leave the interior largely column free.
The overall impression is one of calm and a constant awareness of the lake, whilst the choice of materials and detailing leaves the spaces colder and more austere than poetic. The full height foyer spaces are impressive and clearly orientate the visitor within the building.

La Defense

The La Defense office complex (2004) designed by UN Studio is a building whose exterior responds to the urban context and plan and visibly different interior facades is created for the office tenants. The planning of two buildings separated by a continuous internal street and courtyards is integrated in both scale and circulation with the urban plan. The silver exterior facade reflects the surrounding context.

The internal facades are clad in glass panels with an integrated multi-coloured foil which changes colour and character depending on the angle of incidence and daylight. The material is amazingly sensitive to light and brightly coloured even on a dull grey day and gives the internal courtyards a unique and bright character.

ALMERE

Located 20 minutes from Amsterdam by train Almere became a municipality in 1984 making it one of the youngest cities in the Netherlands. From the completion of the first house in 1976 Almere has grown rapidly and now has a population of 184,000 citizens. The rapid increase in population and housing left Almere without a comprehensive urban plan or defined centre.

In 1994 OMA was commisioned to develop a masterplan for the centre of Almere. The masterplan and process of implementing the plan, it's ambitions and long list of contributing starchitects has been widely published. The new centre creates a distinct urban hierachy that organises a number of smaller centers that currently provide facilities to their immediate areas and provides a number of functions that Almere was lacking, in particular cultural facilities such as a museum, theatre and library. The scale of the proposed functions facilitates the continued growth and redefinition of the identity of the city.

The masterplan also includes a number of large scale retail spaces that are required for the steadily increasing population and economic growth of Almere. The overall feeling of the new center of Almere is that of a giant shopping mall as the ground floor of the majority of buildings is devoted to retail and an over abundance of signage and advertising. The location of the cultural buildings are either on the periphery or covered by retail and give the city an overwhelming sense of rampant commericialism.

The buidings seem to be competing for attention regardless of whether they contain a shoe shop, a mcdonalds, apartments or a library. The inconsistent style and quality of the architecture creates an identity of a city that is equally inconsistent and confusing and lacks the charm and mix of uses, public and private spaces and diversity of outdoor parks and boulevards that are created from a city that grows slowly over a prolonged period of time.