Discover Benelux | Top Architects in the Netherlands | Creating Quality of Life
approach projects without prejudice, the way that children are often capable of doing.”
Bijlmer Sports Centre Yanovshtchinsky takes the Bijlmer Sports Centre (Amsterdam) as an example. “We were asked to design a sports centre with all the commodities, including a swimming pool. I noticed in the surrounding area how people love to gallivant around. That became the starting point of the architectural brief for the building; make it feel like it’s a feast to be there, a place where you can gallivant while exercising.”
Holon. Photo: VYA
Sjoerd Beerends: “We translated the brief into an almost theatrical place where to see and be seen is the leitmotif. Façades and interior walls largely made of glass offer broad views onto the swimming pool, the sports hall and many other facilities. To watch all those people moving and playing is like stepping into the theatre yourself.”
accidentally bombed during the Second World War and afterwards saw its share of functional, solitary buildings that did not bring much more urban to the table. This environment has been transformed into a city centre shopping street; with its two levels and curve, there is always something new to see with every few steps.
is VTV Zuiderpark in The Hague: a beautiful building for the physically and mentally disabled, situated in a park and therefore built to complement the surroundings with its wooden supporting structure and natural materials. Tree-like façades complement the surroundings, making the park part of the building and vice versa.
Spin-off
There is residential block Blok 16a in the Amsterdam borough of IJburg with a formal side facing the street and a more informal other side with its gardens, terraces and water body. Apartments and single-family houses of all shapes and sizes come together, simply by defying the definition of both an apartment and the single-family house. Built in 2003, its design still has a distinct modern feel. There
VYa is no stranger to urban planning either, having designed the previously non-existent city centre of Holon, Israel. The design creates coherence in an urban void, incorporating the haphazardness of its context.
It must be said that Yanovshtchinsky’s projects are sights to behold and usually give way to extra impulses for the surrounding area. Many of the residential or mixed projects are done in districts that are in need of transformation. What was once rather uninviting, gains a new-found attractiveness. Take the Marikenstraat in Nijmegen for instance; a working-class city that was
To find out more about VYa’s work method and projects, visit www.vya.nl
Handelskade. Photo: R. Tilleman
Ijburg. Photo: Sj Henselmans
BSC. Photo: Luuk Kramer
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