As much logo as building, this office building located on an Amsterdam square was conceived by graphic designers Thonik. In additional to the striking ‘zebra’ like patterns of vertical and horizontal lines, the façade registers a bold staircase.
Serving also as a new headquarters for Thonik, one of the most successful graphic design agencies in the Netherlands, the building’s overall volume is substantial, with a height of 23 meters and a width of 14 meters. The building is however a mere 8 meters in depth.
The Amsterdam graphic design studio developed the workspace itself, which is unusual in that the area surrounding has been largely developed in a conventional manner by developers with a pragmatic preference for colourless architecture. The intention behind this is that more generic buildings can be more easily rented out to customers of various backgrounds.
But this building has a distinct character – like a pinstripe tailored suit that is an ode to the graphic design profession. Its inventors describe it as a typographic building, with a grid of strict horizontal and vertical lines. This very consistent pattern is only disrupted, or accented, by the dynamically slanting staircase on the outer façade.
In addition to the patterning, the material choice was also some what unorthodox here. The black and white grid is made of strips of Trespa mounted on the facade. Trespa is a laminate of wood pulp and synthetic resin. Highly affordable, it has however sometime a reputation for being a budget material choice and is therefore restricted in its use by some neighbouring districts. But here the strips surprisingly add depth to the facade, which if painted alone might seem too much of a flat decor piece.
