Location: Groningen, Netherlands.

Architect: NL Architects.

Forum Groningen is a new multifunctional building in the center of Groningen that aims to become a platform for interaction and debate. It is not a library, museum, or cinema, but a new type of public space where the traditional borders between these institutes will dissolve. The building is designed as a single clear volume to express the desire for synergy and to strengthen the shared ambition to combine different facilities into one new compound. The building features an exceptional central space, an innovative atrium that forms the pumping heart of the venue. The void works as a spatial interface that binds all functions and hopes to catalyze the exchange of knowledge and ideas. The building has been engineered “to accommodate finding not searching” and hopes to catalyze the desire to wander endlessly through its staggering interior landscape. Forum Groningen aspires to blend in with the distinguished neighbors in the direct surroundings and become a new ‘family member’ of the Church Tower and the City hall. The building is compact and easy to insulate, and both the opaque and transparent parts of the facade have a very high insulation value. Immense glass surfaces enclose both the north and south sides of the Atrium. In terms of sustainability and energy use, the building harvests energy and is independent from fossil fuels.

Photo credit: Marcel van der Burg.