Literature Study 1 Orphanage School
Literature Study 1 Orphanage School
Literature Study 1 Orphanage School
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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5.7: ELEVATION
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5.8: SECTIONS:
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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
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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5.11: ZONING:
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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.
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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.
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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
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