As one of the Netherlands’s oldest cities, Dordrecht is founded at a crossroads of rivers in the picturesque province of Zuid-Holland. Once known for its flourishing trade, to this day its rich history, wealth and culture remains visible in the city on the water.
The design for Dordthuis emanates from the idea of creating an “urban living room” for Dordrecht. Merging a variety of civic facilities, including the new City Hall, a library, and a tourist information and citizen centre with modern workplaces for the civil servants of the municipality, the house embodies the spirit, history, and identity of Dordrecht.
To establish a place rooted in its physical and historical context, the compact structure of the building is balanced by the synergies and openness among its various functions. On the exterior, the transparency of the lower levels creates an atmosphere of inclusivity and warmth, giving the impression of a truly accessible and inviting place. Simultaneously, from the inside views of the surrounding area frame significant locations such as the church, the square, and the canal - all characteristics to Dordrecht. Thus, Dordthuis will foster a continuous dialogue between the inside and the outside, as well as between its users and the broader city.
Throughout the development of a significant civic project such as Dordthuis, multiple stakeholder and user involvement workshops have been carried out to help inform the design and ensure local ownership and anchoring. The uniqueness of the site, the spatial diversity and visual and physical connectivity across the building and the city will not only result in a place that caters to a wide range of users, but in a place which will be experienced as a place belonging to the city and its citizens, as an extended “urban living room”.
With its numerous civic and cultural functions, Dordthuis provides lifelong companionship. From the moment you receive your birth certificate, through the phases of childhood, youth, and adulthood, it consistently offers a space for every stage of life, providing a constant in an everchanging world.
The building is responsive to the scale of the surrounding environment weaving a new connector of public flows into the existing urban fabric - between the city and the canal.
The new Dordthuis will mediate diverse present and future flows. It is a centre for physical, virtual, and personal connections, a place of transition, and a collection of environments to be alone, together, and alone-together.
The design combines spatial diversity with physical and visual connectivity. A sequence of diverse and welcoming spaces will create an environment tailored to welcome everyone -citizens and tourists alike.
A combination of concrete and timber creates a future resilient building, where the lowest part is realised in concrete to prevent the risk of flooding, while the higher levels are built in timber.
The façade is a mediation of the building’s identity as both a municipal office and a public house. The design playfully uses a familiar vertical facade rhythm in a composition of varying sized and coloured terracotta modules. When viewed from far away the effect is that of an abstract painting – large brushstrokes complied into a colourful patchwork. This experience is contrasted with the view from street scale where the materiality and form convey a sense of timeless civic pride through calm, well-proportioned bays offering framed snap shots into the interior life of the house.
The form of the terracotta façade modules has been meticulously designed through iteration to ensure the building has depth, solidity and contrast of light and shadow. As you move around the building the appearance of the façade in light, colour and form shifts and flows with you – a reflection of its siting on a water location and the wider significance to Dordrecht’s canals and rivers to entwined with the city. The colour palette is a direct translation of the ‘colours of Dordrecht’ a palette devised by H. Groeneweg and K. Rouw that captures the colours and atmosphere of Dordrecht’s historical architecture.
A large publicly accessible plateau is provided on the second floor of the building connected to the main house and café to the North and boarded by an L shaped volume containing additional flexible workspace to the south. Two generous external public staircases connect the plateau to street level below. The landscape design is a natural extension of the main house with bold geometric ground features contrasted with soft and vibrant planting proposals and a series of small trees.
Carefully detailed, bespoke furniture pieces will be featured throughout the building to elevate the unique experience and quality of the spaces. "The peaks" is a place for children to be independent, discover, explore and dream. It offers cozy nooks for relaxing activities and reading but also offers more playful options such as climbing the summit to the clouds where you can take a bird's eye perspective on the exciting worlds of the library. This large piece of super furniture features a stepped projection space for coming together and cozy spaces for being alone.
A cultural anchor and urban node, Dordthuis will become Dordrecht’s most prominent public hub comprising a new city hall, a citizen’s service centre, library, tourist information centre, and office spaces for the civil servants of the municipality Dordrecht and Drechtsteden.
With a unique location between the train station and the historic city centre, Dordthuis will serve as culture venue, fostering connections and providing an environment for creative ideas and innovation co-created with its stakeholders. The design embodies the spirit and identity of Dordrecht, a city on the water.
Additionally, it will play a pivotal role in driving the growth and enhancement of the Spuiboulevard, as the competition also included a proposal for the redevelopment of the surrounding public space, parking, and supplementary commercial offerings.
The design for Dordthuis offers several new public spaces around the building such as the square that marks the main entrance and connects with the city centre, and a pocket park that creates a more intimate public space. There is clear focus on the human scale and the pedestrian experience.
The compact form of the building has facilitated the formation of a series of connected public spaces that are an integral part of how the house is experienced and the buildings contribution to the surrounding urban grain.
It was the only competition proposal that was successfully able to pull away from the neighbouring buildings on the site, creating a 360-degree view of the main prism volume of the design and signifying its position as a house for all.
The jury selected Schmidt Hammer Lassen because of its “radical, ingenious, and comprehensive approach to the assignment." The jury continued by stating: “The proposal is flexible and offers opportunities to continue questioning and developing the building in every sense. The end result is an optimistic future monument for Dordrecht.”
The prism shaped floor plates, supported by the careful alignment of structure create a dynamic internal flow of movement – where key view corridors connect you back to significant points in the city. People and programs are connected vertically both physically and visually through a series of interconnected atriums and double height spaces, that alternate between engagement with the façade and a central positioning. This internal spatial dynamic is expressed on the external façade rhythm bringing the inside out and outside in. The effect is to create a landscape of different daylit spaces that can fully support the various programs within. Striking internal views are contrasted with calm, well laid out functions.
Our approach to interior design is that it should be an authentic continuation of the key design principles of the main building. In this case we sought to create a sense of home within the large. A place that people who use the house could see themselves and their city represented in.
Throughout the workspaces subtle changes in palette and texture are used to delineate nuanced differences in meeting and workspaces so that they feel individual yet connected to a whole. The key double height spaces each have an identity assigned to them that is created by their specific atmosphere supported by the lighting, furniture, materials, and acoustic design.
While the design of the public functions is bold and engaging, they are also welcoming and offer a sense security and barrier-free inclusion. Carefully detailed, bespoke furniture pieces are proposed throughout to elevate the unique experience and quality of the space. The furniture choice offers opportunities for cozy everyday moments contrasted with areas to experience key life or civic events.
While the library is one of many important public functions of the house, it also occupies the unique position as a facilitator of cultural exchange and meaning. The library program is carefully distributed across the first three public floors and positioned to foster connection and exchange with the other functions of the building. The ground floor boasts a landscape of vibrant and provocative spaces for children to play, exchange learn and dream. This includes a soft playful cave, a cinematic campfire and a mountain range for exploration and independence. Spaces for adults and youth are housed on the upper floors, where traditional collections are woven into areas for study, wellbeing, and inspiration. Although small in terms of square metres, the library brings the theme of nature inside, and a world of knowledge and fantasy to kids and young people, here they get to enter different worlds and share reading experiences together.
The robust yet warm materiality of the building provides a deliberate contrast to the adjacent office and residential buildings.
Dordthuis will function as a facilitator of culture, a connector, and an environment for ideas and innovation, co-created with its stakeholders. The idea is to offer a place which will serve as a catalyst for the future development of Dordrecht, the oldest city in Holland. It is the starting point of a future direction that is human centred and sustainable, as well as a major cultural anchor in the society that will define the future identity of Dordrecht. With its numerous civic and cultural functions, it will provide lifelong companionship. From the moment you receive your birth certificate, through the phases of childhood, youth, and adulthood, Dordthuis consistently offers a space for every stage of life, providing a constant in an everchanging world.
