Contained Container
Wrapping’ the Silodam with a second skin to create climate buffer.
The Enclosed Space – The spatial model that best corresponds to the new development for both inside and outside spaces on all scales is that of enclosed or ‘wrapped’ space. An enclosed space offers a sense of security in an uncontrolled environment. An enclosed space has the potential to stimulate concentration in a world of fleeting diversions and perpetual change.
Enclosed spaces runs the risk of becoming hermetic. Modernist spatial ideas such as lightness and transparency, deployed in combination with new building materials, form the key to making enclosed spaces that are refreshing and elegant. – Atelier Kempe Thill “Specific Neutrality” p 5
The redesign proposal deals with ‘containing the container’: retrofitting MVRDV’s Silodam by covering it up, creating a protective and flexible double facade system. This second skin consists of a multi-storey 1.7 m wide air cavity with some integrated vertical divisions and no openings on the exterior facade. The new membrane will protect residents as well as the building itself from the harsh conditions experienced at Amsterdam’s harbour: strong prevailing winds, vast amounts of precipitation, moisture, noise, pollution, etc. The new glass ‘blanket’ shelters the collage of existing facade materials, which are highly prone to damage from various weather conditions of solar, wind and water exposure.
type of project: building technology, individual
location: Amsterdam
supervisors: Florian Eckardt
date of completion: january 2012
Impression (generated in photoshop, using own photograph of view from Silodam) showing useability and scale of redesign proposal.
Elevation of facade redesign fragment
Longitudinal section cutting through gallery.
Interior view onto new balcony / gallery / facade addition from existing living room within the Silodam.
Plan view of redesigned facade system, showing structural components, attachments, spatial qualities (reduced from the 1:20 drawing;
generated by AutoCAD)
Diagram showing west facade, structural support, vertical partitions, newly added double facade with gallery.
Detail B (generated from 1:5 drawing)