Address

Leuvenlaan 19

Architect

OMA, Rem Koolhaas with Christophe Cornubert

Year

building time: Sept. 1995 - Oct. 1997

Use

Multifunctional: 2 auditoria (400 and 500 seats), a restaurant (900 seats), examination facilities, symposia.

Awards

Rietveld Award, 1999 Model project for sustainable development, 1997

Relevant websites

• At oma.eu • http://www.uu.nl/educatorium/ (unfortunately, the material at this site has been lost for unknown reasons.) • http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/educatorium/ • http://architectuur.org/oma03.php • http://www.dubo-centrum.nl/projecten/project.php?recID=43 (Dutch, on sustainability aspects)

Opened

Officially opened Oct. 20, 1997 by Jo Ritzen, Minister of Education. First teaching activites: Sept. 1997.

Sq. metrage

11,000 m2 gross, 45,000 m3 underground bicycle storage: 1,000 places; roof terrace: 1,500 m2; restaurant: 1,000 seats.

Cost

12.7 million €

Contractors

BAM Bredero Bunnik

Landscape designer

West 8

General information

The most striking element of the building is its curled concrete structure that provides the building with a continuous space forming both floors to the auditoria and a ceiling to the restaurant. In terms of urban development, the Educatorium completes a triangle. It borders two already existing buildings, the low-rise Ruppertgebouw and the high-rise Van Unnikgebouw. The Educatorium's large hall functions as an inner court where the routes of all three buildings come together. The huge glass façade at the north mirrors the landscape in an impressive way and allows for a very pleasant light to enter the building. It can be described as the new urbanity of 'De Uithof'. The design is based on a free suspension structure which spans around 20 meters. In combination with the expressed wish not to use more than 20 cm of concrete for the floors, revolutionary steel enforcement methods were chosen. In one of the auditoria an egg shaped metal grid coming out of the ceiling seems to be just a work of art, but in fact is part of the roof structure. A special feature of the northern auditorium hall (Meagron Hall) is its wall that consists mainly of glass panels which are covered with a polarizing foil which limits the transparency. The glass is only transparant if you look straight through it. The holographic foil is imported from Japan. The Educatorium served as a model project for sustainable development, mainly due to compact building and the stacking of functions and the minimal use of materials. Adjacent to the examination rooms is an ecological roof garden of 1,500 m2. Yellow and red sedum plants were selected to grow on Floradrain FD-25.

The name of the building

The word educatorium doesn't exist in Dutch, Latin, nor English. It was made up to depict a modern education factory that would serve multiple purposes.

... more.