Location: Amersfoort, Netherlands.

Architect: Neutelings Riedijk Architects.

The Eemhuis in Amersfoort is a cultural center that combines a library, exposition center, heritage archives, and school for dance, music, and visual arts. The building is designed as a vertical stacking of these programs, with a covered plaza on the ground floor that leads to the various functions. The library is a stepped information terrace that brings visitors up to the main library floor, which overlooks the city. The archive volume forms the ceiling of this space. The arts school is located in the attic of the building, with each department expressed separately as cantilevered beams that crown the complex. The façades are composed of a classical tripartite, with elongated glazed bricks on the plinth and metal panels with a dotted pattern of semi-spheres on the crown. The building enhances the continuity of the public domain into the building and provides a unique and alienating quality against the northern Dutch clouds.

Photo credit: Scagliola Brakkee, Neutelings Riedijk Architects