This versatile and sustainable campus, which accommodates 800 students, was designed to have a positive impact on its urban environment.
The Student Experience Amsterdam Zuidas, designed by the Dutch office Oz, is a spectacular, sustainable and recyclable building in which special attention has been paid to flexibility, with careful management of energy, environmental and social services. The objective was to create strong links with the urban and cultural climate of Amsterdam. In order to encourage student housing in a neighbourhood that lacked it, the City has also made the land available to developers free of charge for a period of 12 years. This incentive has made it possible to offer rents that remain affordable since the price of the land does not have to be recovered immediately.
There are study rooms for individual or collective use, as well as facilities designed in the style of a grand café, a living room or a private dining room – in order to be able to cook and eat with your guests.
The residence offers a laundry room, a large bicycle storage room, a large shared garden and a sports field on the roof of the building. There is even a general practice where a local GP goes twice a week for consultations.
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Amsterdam Student Experience © Ronald Tilleman -
Amsterdam Student Experience © Ronald Tilleman -
Amsterdam Student Experience © Ronald Tilleman
The interior and the exterior
This mix of functions offers a pleasant living and working environment in an urban setting that is both green and close to public transport (the use of which by residents is encouraged).
But the architects are not limited to imagining the interior life of the residence. A special programme has been developed to stimulate the liveliness of the district by integrating public, commercial and collective spaces into the building.
And it is precisely this mix of public and private functions that makes this residence a virtuous model of architecture: both succeeding in bringing a large mixed-use building to life and making it a lasting part of the city where it is located. Zuidas is also becoming a business district as important as that of La Défense in Paris, making the location of this residence both daring and promising.
