Minnaert Building: A Functional Building with Three Main Elements

Located on the Uithof University Campus, Minnaert Building comprises three main elements. These elements are a restaurant, classrooms and laboratories, and a workspace for three departments. Completed in 1997 by Neutelings Riedijk Architects, this 9000 m2 building is nominated for the Rietveld Award.

Idea

This project is a functional program that complemented by the ‘tare space’, an undefined area made of service zones and circulation. The main idea of this project is to concentrate a building space as much as possible in one large hall, a meeting place, and a transit area for all in the campus’s north-western corner. This area can be found on the first floor, the piano nobile, a tank that expanded within the existing circulation network of the building aerial walkways.

Structure

The hall of the building has the main feature: a large meter pond that collects rainwater from the building. This water basin is used as the building’s cooling machine. This water is pumped through the building during the day to absorb the excessive heat and pumped back to the roof in the evening for free-cooling.

Design

It is an awesome building designed around five senses: darkness and light, wind, moisture, smell, sound, heat, and cold are used as the architectural instruments of the building. The building facade is covered by an undulation skin of rough sprayed concrete to enhance the building’s monolithic character.

Minnaert Building Gallery

Photography: Neutelings Riedijk Architects