The Arenapoort district is the newest centre of sports, shopping and night-life in Amsterdam, rapidly growing around the Bijlmer-Arena railway-and-metro station with over a million travellers each day.
As the entrance building to the 2,5 acre ‘Eleven Square’ development, Neutelings Riedijk design a tower on a 21m plinth housing a cultural and hospitality programme of a musical theatre, hotel and several café-restaurants. On all sides, the ground floor is open and fully programmed by theatre lobby and restaurants; to realise this, all logistics and backstage have been organised smartly and safely in an enclosed logistics square. The hotel tower is rotated on the plinth, so its corners protrude, marking the theatre entrance on the boulevard side and the hotel lobby above Eleven Square. There, a subtle recess marks the hotel lobby and restaurants, and protect the terrace on top of the plinth. This is part of the rooftop garden, a lovely outdoor space for hotel, with sheltered green pockets and great views. Also, the roof garden introduces natural elements in the neighbourhood, beneficial to water management, clean air and biodiversity.
By day, the building looks friendly and modest but by night, the foyers of the theatre, the restaurants and bars light up and display the life inside. Human-scaled elements like a bay window hovering over Eleven Square and display windows on street level, interact with the passers-by. Spectacularly, the ceiling of the tower base shows a luminous artwork, drawing attention upward and expressing night-life excitement.
To meet all expectations of today’s musical audience, the theatre hall is designed for perfect acoustics and, with a balcony, intimate relation between audience and stage. The tower layout maximises hotel-room surface and the load-bearing, heavy façades not only look good, but effectively realise the highest soundproofing, protecting hotel guests form the noise of sports events and concerts.
