V' Tower

Eindhoven, Pays-Bas

Photo © Jan Bitter

This slender office tower is wider at one end, owing to its irregular polygon shaped site. Its spaces are wrapped around two compact cores at opposite ends of its interior, which contain its major circulation paths. The tower’s parking garage is situated below an adjacent raised road, which buttresses the tower to enable a direct connection between these two entities. This allows the office to be accessed from both its ground and first floor, and facilitates the introduction of a ‘zero-zero’ level that leaves the precise location of the ‘ground floor’ undefined. Its façade is fritted with a pixilated enamel image; this creates an abstract pattern that spans a gradating density–from transparent to translucent–in a non-repeating rhythm. Constructed for a private company that oversees information and communication technology solutions, the tower exemplifies the open, transparent, and efficient cultural characteristics of its occupant. During daytime the tower’s fritted surfaces allow for panoramic views to the exterior, while at night, they disallow views from the exterior into the interior, in order to establish additional privacy for the office’s employees. Multiple floor to ceiling sliding windows–fritted in the same manner as the entire façade–so that they disappear within their context little noticed when seen from the exterior–punctuate each level of office space in order to introduce additional ventilation and seamless connectivity between the tower’s site, program, and surroundings.