Stadsdeelwerf Zuideramstel
The striking, conspicuous appearance of this bright white building is deceptive, as it houses not an art gallery or an advertising agency but the City Cleansing Department and Parks and Public Gardens Department. This playing with suggestion and patterns of expectation, which is deliberately evoked by a highly aesthetic architectural gesture, creates a field of tension between form and content. The building thereby throws into disarray at least the conventions of utilitarian simplicity and the appropriate application of luxurious architecture.
The horizontal expanses of windows not only break the monotony of the façade but also create the impression of a sunken building because they are repeatedly placed just above ground level. It looks as though the building has sunk into the ground under its own weight. That semblance of fake weightiness is a further ironical feature in the unusual look of this everyday municipal depot.
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