OMA's 'cubist' composition fits seamlessly into Berlage's Plan Zuid

'Fuck context' – these two words gave Rem Koolhaas' Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) the reputation of an architectural firm that ignores context when designing buildings. This is a persistent misunderstanding that, funny enough, arose when the words 'fuck context' were taken out of context by critics and took on a life of their own.

Koolhaas wrote the supposed slogan of OMA in 'Bigness or the Problem of Large', a reflection on super-large buildings from 1995. In this 'fuck context' is not a rallying cry but an observation. Colossal buildings are not part of the 'urban fabric', Koolhaas noted in 'Bigness', their subtext is 'fuck context'. In other words: with colossal buildings the context plays no role, an observation in which Koolhaas was absolutely right.

The fact that OMA does take the context into account – if the agency does not build a building like De Rotterdam, the largest 'multifunctional building in the Benelux' in Rotterdam – is evident from the recently completed office building Apollolaan 171 in Amsterdam. This building designed by OMA architect David Gianotten even deserves the qualification of hyper-contextual. The brown-beige business complex in the heart of Berlages Plan Zuid, which glows gold when illuminated by the sun, has two different sides that nevertheless both fit in with the architecture in the immediate vicinity.

OMA's Apollolaan 171 has replaced a bank building from 1991, designed by Wim Quist. This was a genuine 'quist coffin'. Because the first user, the JP Morgan Bank, needed a large, secure vault, Quist built an unapproachable fortress, with three closed building parts made of gray bricks on the corner of Apollolaan/Michelangelostraat. When the building lost its function as a bank, it continued as an ordinary but heavy and sullen-looking office building. Due to its unattractive character, the owner, the Kroonenberg Group, commissioned OMA several years ago to build a new office building with a steel frame on the concrete basement of the old one.

The brown-beige building glows gold when illuminated by the sun

Since Apollolaan 171 is in the heart of Berlage's Plan Zuid, which has the status of a 'protected cityscape', the municipality had to give the new building the same contours as the old one. OMA has more than succeeded in this. Not only does the new office building fit into the old 'envelope' of Quist's box, but it also has a larger floor area than its predecessor. Moreover, Apollolaan 171 has become an open and transparent building that nevertheless fits in with the environment.

Office boxes

With their glass facades, with or without vertical metal slats, the building parts on the north and east sides connect to the late-modernist Hilton Hotel by Hugh Maaskant from 1969 and the structuralist school buildings by Herman Hertzberger from 1983 across the street. Apollolaan. To prevent the two wings from forming yet another boring glass office building, Gianotten van de Hoek has created a beautiful 'cubist' composition that is somewhere between 21st-century pixel architecture and the work of Willem Dudok, the architect of the famous Hilversum Town Hall. .

The back of Apollolaan 171, located on Titiaanstraat, has a different character. Here, the stacked office boxes are largely covered with so-called 'bishop's hats', point-shaped beige-brown bricks. Together with the narrow vertical windows, the bishop's hats give the building a more traditionalist appearance that matches the brick housing blocks from the interwar period opposite.

'No money no details' was once the young Koolhaas's defense to critics' accusation that OMA's first buildings, such as the Kunsthal in Rotterdam from 1991, were poorly detailed. The construction budget of Apollolaan 171 is not known, but judging by the details, it was not low. The entrance is clearly marked by a monumental frame of dark green Italian marble. Some walls in the spacious reception hall are also covered with marble from top to bottom. The rectangular stairwell with wide stairs and wafer-thin, minimalist metal balustrades has an unprecedented allure, especially for an office building.

Outside, Apollolaan 171 also far exceeds the average office building. Many contemporary office buildings, with their glass facades reaching down to the pavement, are ugly and shabby on the ground. But the glass parts of Apollolaan 171 are surrounded by long metal planters that form raised beds. It appears as if the new building has a basement, like a classical temple.

A large bronze statue of HP Berlage, made by the French artist Xavier Veilhan, has been placed in the flowerbed at the entrance. Also The more of you the more I love youa work of art with this text in neon letters by Tracy Emin has been given a place in Apollolaan 171. Emin's installation from 2016 decorated the closed facade of Quist's coffin in the last years of its existence, the building that was the heart of Plan for thirty years South was disfigured and has now been replaced by a building that rivals the Hilton Hotel and Hertzberger's schools.

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