Discover Benelux | Architecture | Atelier to the Bone
offer a place where the (interior) architect and the creative designer can work more successfully, with like-minded souls and all the necessary facilities.” For Broeinest’s own interior, Baars & Bloemhoff settled on a design contest, in which AttB’s fully flexible and dynamic design was victorious. As well as a flexiworkspace for (interior) architects and designers, Broeinest contains Baars & Bloemhoff’s materials, available for immediate use in models, presentations and collages. (Interior) designers therefore have free use of a space in Eindhoven’s creative core that houses everything needed. With Broeinest defining the space, users are invited to engage in its design and use. AttB’s winning design brings multi-purpose space to the fore with each square metre used to its full potential; with one handmovement the entire space can be transformed from an open office into a presentation room, exhibition space or workshop area. To maximise flexibility, they designed the Broeiplek, a moveable piece of furniture with two worktops that can be used
as the user wishes: desk, drawing table, painting easel or presentation display – a fitting response to current demands from young professionals in this field for freedom. Far more than just a static showroom, Broeinest is a dynamic space that repeatedly reacts to its users’ wishes. The flexibility that characterises Broeinest was prompted by the global societal changes – AttB have these matters at the core of their designs. With Schuttingtaal (slang), their innovative take on a traditional garden shed, they convincingly won the 2013 Young Architects Prize. Incorporating the regular functions of a summerhouse, it shares the role of the dividing fence, allowing access to both sides. Once a dividing feature, this object becomes a shared summerhouse that unites, allowing optimum use for both users – and costs can be shared with neighbours. According to AttB, architects shouldn’t limit themselves to a particular scale. For them, creating a connection is vital, and this is unmistakable in their deserved victory in Europan, the international archi-
tecture competition. Since 2010, sewing machine manufacturer Pfaff’s former 21hectare industrial site in Kaiserslautern has fallen into disrepair, prompting the need for a complete overhaul. In a task like this, the role of the architect as a facilitator is called for. During the development phase, AttB considered how people approach certain spaces and sought to link these concepts. Giving people the opportunity to shape their own environmental results in a relationship developing between user and space. Such a system has no static end result and this form of dynamic urban planning is characterised in projects such as Eindhoven’s Strijp-S, where Broeinest will shortly open its doors. The collaboration between AttB and Baars & Bloemhoff is one that brims with possibilities, seeing both parties searching for the optimal way to connect; connecting people not just with each other, but with their surroundings as well. www.broeinest.nl www.attb.nl
Issue 12 | December 2014 | 55