Albatros
The area around the van Hasseltweg in Amsterdam North is to be developed, setting large urban scale projects amongst the existing small 'garden-village' housing estates. The planning activity is concentrated around the location of the new North/South axis metro station and the Albatros is the first of the projects to come on stream. The most important challenge in designing the Albatros was reconciling the confrontation between the scales of the new large developments and that of the surrounding housing. In order that the building would not act as a huge barrier within the neighbourhood, it was decided to 'break it up' by dividing it into four tower-like fins arranged on a base or plinth.
This plinth contains all the commercial and community orientated services and is equal in height to the neighbouring structures. The 130 dwellings are housed in the four fins above. The building as a whole has the appearance of a large scale sculpture.
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