THE BUILDING OF THE DUTCH EMBASSY IN BERLIN
Architectural Study - OMA - DR.Koolhaas

The May 2004 issue of Architectural Review (No. 1287, p.48) features a presentation of the Dutch Embassy building in Berlin, as it was studied by Dr.Koolhaas' OMA lab.
It is a two-facet building with rather strict and geometrically disciplined external sides, behind which spreads an expressionistic labyrinth of interior spaces in an almost anarchist arrangement.
The building has a monolithic cube style shape. Inside it spreads an interesting pathway of stairs, ramps and corridors climbing without any order, towards every direction, even appearing in the facet, crossing 10 levels till it finally reaches the terrace with its restaurant at 26m height. The various functional spaces of the embassy lie along this pathway, suddenly appearing before you.
Several bridges connect the main building to another long-narrow, L-shaped smaller one where some apartments have been created.
The materials used are also of exceptional interest. Aesthetic, unhidden concrete parts, aluminum-sheet covers, wood and sub-lit green-floor glass. Doubts are expressed about their endurance in the course of time though.
A provocative building, following dogmatically strict design rules which we would yet like to see again after 5-6 years of intensive use.

Athanase Zoulias