Kontakte – Das Jahrbuch der KIT-Fakultät für Architektur 2023

Assignment
The studio researched what possible futures for the NHOW
hotel by OMA in Amsterdam 2020 could be engendered. The
idea is to re-imagine and redeem the hotels future life after
its expected lifespan of 40 years. The students repurposed
and/or reprogrammed the building in multiple intelligent
ways. Their transformations position the hotel in Amsterdam
in a (visionary) urban landscape of 40 – 80 years ahead
in time. Transformations can be preservations as much as
extensions, recompositions as well as ones of recycling. We
used the four kinds of circular form as a starting point. With
the proposed transformations we investigated new social
and cultural futures for the building, enabling a circular
architectural vocabulary of circular form.
Studio Assumptions
Through design the students investigate how a transition
from a linear to a circular economy can be made wand what
the many implications for the architectural discipline will
be. The studio tested circular design thinking, not just in material
and construction, but also in the design of new building
processes or in the economic implications. Also the use
of circular design strategies offers potential for the development
of new typologies and new architectural expressions.
And, above all, regenerative design strategies might bring
forth solutions for current and future societal challenges
that traditional design methods cannot provide.
Tasks
The students were asked to analyze the regenerative potential
of the NHOW hotel and predict the future of its existence
through speculative fabulations, writing scenario’s, taking
its constructive and material logic apart, imagine the world
anew with the help of design.
F G Valentina Mironoca, Louis
Hertenstein, Vincent Witt – NHOW
Hotel analysis
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Feature