LITERATURE STUDY THESIS 2016-17

CHAPTER-5 LITERATURE STUDY 1:

AMSTERDAM MUNICIPAL ORPHANAGE, AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

5.1: PROJECT BRIEF

PROJECT NAME: AMSTERDAM MUNICIPAL ORPHANAGE

YEAR OF ESTABLISH: 1960
PROJECT TYPE: ORPHANAGE HOME
OWNER: MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, AMSTERDAM
ARCHITECT: ALDO VAN EYCK
SITE INFORMATION (AREA): 10 ACRES
LOCATION OF SITE: AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

Orphanage building
Source- www.amsterdamorphanage.org
5.2:INTRODUCTION

Amsterdam Orphanage is built by Dutch Architect Aldo van Eyck in 1960. In an essay published
in 1962 which named “Steps toward a Configurative Discipline” he wrote that a house must be
like a small city if it’s to be a real house, a city like a large house if it’s to be a real city. As a result
of that Orphanage’s designs were both a home for the children as well as the plan of a small city.
The Amsterdam Orphanage is van Eyck’s vision of a balanced community. His design earned him
international recognition and established his humanist theories in a built project.

The Amsterdam Municipal Orphanage, designed by Aldo van Eyck, was built off the idea of spaces
for children to live, grow, and play in. The idea of spaces for children to live, grow, and play in.
THE building is a collection of unique spaces joined together by segmented hail ways or indoor
“Streets ’’ as describe by van Eyck.

One side of these hail ways follow along the glazed exterior wall of the building to provide natural

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Light as well as allow easy access to the numerous courtyards .these courtyards apply to an
important aspect of the building design, its flawless connection between indoor and outdoors
spaces connected to these courtyards as well as main hail ways ,are eight departments designed for
children of each age group .

The architecture, structure, and the fixtures of the building were all designed with the children in
mind; firstly pools and sand pits were added to floors and walls .lastly built in furniture ranging in
size and function doubled as play places such as stages and forts aldo van Eyck wanted to create
a space where a child could play inside the way he or she would play outside but with a roof
overhead.

5.3: FEATURES
Van Eyck criticized early post-war architecture as lacking a human element. In
the Amsterdam Orphanage he sought to design a modern building with a new urban vision from
those of his CIAM predecessors.

The building is a collection of unique spaces joined together by segmented hail ways or indoor
streets

Courtyards apply to a imp aspect of the building’s design, its flawish connection b/w indoors
and outdoors spaces.

Sparrline materials and mirror were added to floor and walls. Furniture ranging in size and
function doubled as play spaces.
Pools and sands pits were added into courtyards

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The building is constructed out of two sizes of modules, a smaller size for the residences, and
a larger size for community spaces.

The modules consist of four round columns at the corners with a domed roof of pre-cast
concrete on top. The floor is also concrete. The many facades in the building are either a glass
wall or a solid wall made with dark brown bricks.

A larger courtyard is offset diagonally from the residential spaces, and the entrance and
administrative spaces connect with the street, the large courtyard, as well as the residential units.
Van Eyck avoids creating a central point within the Orphanage by allowing for such fluid
connections between all spaces.

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5.4: LOCATION OF PROJECT

WORLD MAP NETHERLANDS IN EUROPE MAP

GOOGLE MAP LOCATION

LOCATION OF AMSTERDAM
OF AMSTERDAM ORPHANAGE

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5.5: SITE LAYOUT:

5.6: FLOOR PLANS:

GROUND AND FIRST FLOOR PLAN

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GROUND FLOOR PLAN:

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FIRST FLOOR PLAN:

5.7: ELEVATION

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5.8: SECTIONS:

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5.9: PLANING AND CONCEPT:

Dutch Architect Aldo van Eyck built the Amsterdam Orphanage in 1960. His design focused
on a balance of forces to create both a home and small city on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

After a decade of experimenting with elementary forms and their interrelations, Van Eyck’s
views were synthesized in an iconic building, the Amsterdam Municipal Orphanage (1955-60).
Here he succeeded in reconciling a great many polarities. The Orphanage is both house and city,
compact and polycentric, single and diverse, clear and complex, static and dynamic,
contemporary and traditional; rooted as much in the classical as in the modern tradition. The
classical tradition resides in the regular geometrical order that lies at the base of the plan. The
modern one manifests itself in the dynamic centrifugal space which traverses the classical order.
The archaic tradition shows up in various aspects of the building’s formal appearance. Due to the
soft, biomorphic cupolas which cover the entire building, the first impression it evokes is that of
an archaic settlement, reminiscent of a small Arabic domed city or an African village

A larger courtyard is offset diagonally

from the residential spaces, and the entrance
and administrative spaces connect with the
street, the large courtyard, as well as the
residential units. Van Eyck avoids creating
a central point within the Orphanage by
allowing for such fluid connections between
all spaces.

Within the Orphanage, units of program are laid out on an orthogonal grid. The units project
off two diagonal paths so that each unit has multiple exterior facades. By projecting off of a
diagonal within the grid, van Eyck creates an equal amount of negative spaces from the positives
he’s formed. Each individual unit is then neighbored by its own outdoor space.

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5.10: FORM DEVELOPMENT:

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5.11: ZONING:

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5.12: PLANING FEATURES OF THE BUILDING:

GEOMETRY-
The geometrical order of the building is articulated by a contemporary version of the Classical
Orders, composed of columns and architraves. The columns are slender concrete cylinders with
fine ‘fluting’ left from the shuttering; the architraves are concrete beams, each with an oblong slit
at the center. Their joined extremities give the impression of a capital, though capitals as such are
absent. The small domes form a grid that extends evenly across the entire building so that the
overall pattern can be read at every point. Along the axial lines of this grid, pillars, architraves
and solid walls mark off a number of well-anchored, enclosed spaces: the living rooms and
adjoining patios, the festive hall, gymnasium and central court.

All are spaces related primarily to their center, a centers established by the large dome-shapes, the
axial lines of the grid generated by the small domes, and the axially placed doors. The inner court
seems to be a latter-day version of a Renaissance ‘cortile’ and the interior streets at times recall
Romanesque cloisters. The ‘immutability and rest’ of the classical tradition, however, is
fully assimilated and traversed by the dynamic ordering of the new reality. The centrality
established by the architectural ‘order’ is restricted to the spaces mentioned above. and is countered
just about everywhere, as much in the design of the specific equipment as in the
overall composition.

The focus of the interior court is a circular seat marked by two lamps, which rather than occupying
the geometric center of this space, is shifted four meters or so diagonally from it. And if this

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spiazza is indeed the centre of the entire settlement, it does not dominate as such. From it the
settlement fans out centrifugally in all directions; it is the fixed point from which decentralization
is developed and delineated.

Thus, the axial ordering of the square does not extend in any way to the internal circulation areas.
It merely provides the initial impulse for the two interior streets, which branch out in contrary
zigzag movements, to give access, via interior and exterior courtyards to the various
units. Consequently, the residential units that unfold along these streets are in no way bound
together by a central perspective.

Geometry is very important to the Amsterdam Orphanage. The building is comprised of numerous
shapes that range in scale and location. These shapes come together to help aid and define spaces
the box like grid structure of the building is enhanced by the 90 degree angles of the squares and
rectangles. But it is just opposed by soft curves of the circles and ellipse

All the shapes complement each other and help from the building design concept.

STRUCTURE AND GRAVITY LOADS:

A g rid work of columns and load bearing walls support the orphanage vertically. gravity loads ,or
vertical loads, are dead and live loads

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5.13: CIRCULATION:

Van Eyck said, the building was conceived as a configuration of intermediary places clearly
defined. He tried to articulate the transition b/w different spaces by defining views or moments
that allow for individuals to see the destination ahead of them as well as the place from which they
came

Circulation and interaction is encouraged b/w different dormitories of different age groups,
inviting children’s to mix enjoy each other’s company.

5.14: PLAY AREAS:

The orphanage was built for one reason, to give a place for the orphans of Amsterdam to lve and
grow up, so naturally there are built in place for play through the orphanage. the areas for play will
differ depending on the age of the children living in the space.

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5.15: NATURAL LIGHT:

The building’s roof is covered with dozens of skylight. These skylights allow for lots of natural
light. The beams of light stream into semi dark rooms, highlighting different parts of the rooms
depending on the time of day. Adding visual interest.

All along the main hail ways are walls of glazed glass looking out to the buildings many courtyards
allowing for nice views as well as providing lots of light to most areas of the orphanage

COURTYARD PLANNING IN THE BUILDING

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