A Landmark visible from afar

The top North of the country with the province of Friesland and the city of Groningen is considered bush-league by most Dutch. So, it’s even more astonishing that interesting architectural projects keep emerging in this neck of the woods. A current example of this is the recently completed Education Executive Agency & Tax offices (EEA) office highrise building in Groningen, based on plans by Ben van Berkel and designed by UNStudio from Amsterdam. The 92 meters high new building has established within the cityscape as an important element with its asymmetrically ascending and softly rounded outlines. On an area of 48,000 square meters, an office landscape rich in variety is provided for the nearly 2,500 employees of both local authorities.

Aerodynamic Shape

The new building realized on the basis of a public-private partnership is composed of a 12-story base and an ascending highrise disk above, all in all 25 floors; disk and base are connected to form an organically flowing whole. Due to its aerodynamic shape, the building keeps surprising us even after numerous rounds around it. However, this is not just an esthetic attachment in order to create a nice and citizen-friendly image of the authorities, but it also allows for reduced wind loads and an increased building climate.

The banister elements, equipped with reflectors at the top protruding like fins from between all floors, enables an additional energy consumption optimization: In summer, they reduce the heat load through reflecting the incoming light towards the top, when the sun is low in winter, they support the light coming in and allow for a passive usage of solar energy. Further measures for reducing energy requirements are the use of thermal heat and concrete core cooling, a reduced level height as well as an intelligent building control.

Flowing Office Landscape

Just as dynamic as the outer shell is what the UNStudio architects have done with the new building’s interior with its flexible and open office and traffic areas. The bold color contrast with shades of orange, crimson and green is faced by numerous 70s retro-style details. A Dutch peculiarity is the ecological basic idea of the new building: All in all 675 parking places for cars and 1,500 places for bicycles (!) are available. A contribution to climate protection which is typical for this country and definitely recommended for copycats!