NUILDING

ROTTERDAM, 2000

(new + economy = newconomy: new + building = nuilding) A client approached us with a request for the design of a 50'000 m2 storage building for cars (showrooms) and computers (servers) on a site adjacent to a highway. For its power supply, it would rely on an built-in 40 mW power plant. The site of the new building lies next to the A20 ring road around Rotterdam, in walking distance of our office. We are asked to design our own skyline. Cars are often put on display in glass boxes on sites bordering highways. The idea is that passers-by get a good look at the goods behind the curtain wall, yet in general the glass reflects more than it lets through. Our proposal is a radical mutant of this worn-out typology: glass facades not parallel to the highway, but perpendicular to the sightlines of the approaching drivers: the cars not behind glass, but on balconies: the curtain wall of sloping mirror glass reflecting and protecting the cars. The development of the building came to a halt when the NASDAQ crashed. The design was exhibited at the 2005 Venice Architecture Biennale. Rumor has it that the client sold the plans to a group of Chinese investors.