☉ Amsterdam children's playschool is a finalist competition entry by NON studio for Archmedium in 2016. It is located in Amsterdam Netherlands in a seaside and urban setting. Its scale is medium. Review the 19 proposals for the same competition.
Looking at this drawing you may ask yourself…
Why do not build on pier?
The project consists in the requalification of the area of the pier preserving its flexibility. The playschool, the cultural centre and the other integrative functions are organized on modular rafts that can dock directly at the pier or can move from it, they can be connected each other or can be substituted creating new configurations.
A red boardwalk surrounds the pier protecting and preserving it and framing the public space. There are no squares on the pier because it becomes a public square itself, surrounded by the boardwalk, by the existing buildings and by the new ones that dock creating different perspectives.
Why do not build a unique building?
The playschool and the cultural centre (but also the other buildings with different functions, which may be added in the future) are designed as a system of rafts, upon which there are little buildings that host different functions alternated with green spaces.
The absence of a unique building makes the system more resilient in relation with the future changes; it can expand or reduce in relation with the flows of people and the success of the project. The system of the playschool can expand both internally and externally, with the creation of new spaces for the children or with the addition of new functions and spaces that can be useful in the future.
How are the rafts connected?
The vertical elements are viewpoints from which you can look at the new “village”, they can be located between two rafts and allow covered connections between the buildings that are set at the edge of the raft.
A standardized distance among the levels allows the connection of the buildings with different heights.
What is it possible to do?
Different scenarios are supposed. In addition to the play school, the cultural centre offers spaces for exhibitions and conventions. The public square can be equipped for different kinds of fairs, music festivals and projection of films. On these occasions a stage or a screen could be installed between the two viewpoint towers that are situated on the pier, framing the view toward the canal.