This brand new 26.000 m2 hotel is located within Amsterdam’s Zuidas district; the main business district of the city, similar in stance to Le Défense in Paris, or Canary Wharf in London. The chain is well known in the Netherlands for its hotels sited in-between Dutch metropolises, and with this location has added a new destination to their portfolio of properties, with 240 more hotel rooms. In recent years, Amsterdam has seen an unprecedented number of new hotels open within restored, monumental buildings its city center. Yet there has been a lack of new-built hotels in the city; this is one of several seeking to fill requirements of travelers for business and pleasure, who do not want to be in the city center but still wish to be close to it. Therefore, this hotel is sited directly adjacent to the ring-highway encircling Amsterdam; much like Paris’ Boulevard Périphérique. Due to this ‘edge’ situation in the city, the hotel stands within a stone’s throw of many train, metro, tram, and bus stops–with the city center reached by tram, in fifteen minutes. Closer by is the city’s ‘Old South’ neighborhood, developed for the 1928 Olympic Games; a leafy residential area ripe for exploring. 

The hotel is situated on a ‘found’ triangular shaped site, which was long-slated for development; it prescribed the volume. Standing at a height of 55 m, the hotel is positioned in prominent view of those driving past it. Because of this location, it is rather introverted in its sequence of entry. The hotel's ground floors, and its first four floors, together compose a parking garage with space for 143 cars. The hotel’s entry is located at ground level–in a sort of semi-lobby that ushers guests up to the sixth floor–where the main lobby, check-in, and restaurant are located. An enormous 15x5 m LED screen covers the wall opposite the hotel's car drop-off area; it defines the entry while activating its space, by way of the ability to alter its mood via on-screen imagery. It was chosen to elevate the ‘main’ lobby to the fifth floor, so that it overlooks the city in all directions. An inviting green wall, with a newly created canal in front of it, function as a garden when seen from the lobby. Off the main lobby, a sprawling terrace has been cut into the North façade, offering views toward Amsterdam; two large restaurants occupy this same floor.

Atop the lobby are three ‘towers’, each of which was formed by receding the building's envelope; these are the hotel rooms. A monumental, curving staircase connects the main floors, separating the conference center from hotel rooms. Because guests will enter the hotel at street level, there is a stillness that suffuses the hotel's ‘main’ lobby, precisely because it does not offer immediate access to the street. Ascending to the sixth floor, where the business meeting and congress centers are situated, an additional cut has been made into the South façade, creating another terrace nearly double the size of the North terrace, on the fifth, main lobby level below. From the atrium-like monumental central staircase; three corridors branch outward so that the hotel’s 240 rooms have views in each direction. The hotel’s spa and wellness center is located in the corner of the uppermost floor, which has a triangular pool with views to the city.

Every hotel room is spacious, with a strong sense of generosity and warmth of materials, such as rich dark woods, luxurious fabrics, and marble furnishings. This palette is also used in the communal spaces of the hotel, to further impart a domestic feel throughout the duration of each guest’s experience; from entry, to check-out. Along the edge of the windows within each room is built-in seating, so that guests can, for instance, overlook the city–as when savoring a glass of wine, or curling up with a book. Fresh, sharp, and clean, without being sterile; the new Van der Valk Hotel in Amsterdam’s Zuidas, located a mere eight minutes from Amsterdam's Schipol airport and the adjacent park–the 'Amsterdam Forest'–is a hybrid-hotel that acknowledges the reality of endless infrastructure created for the automobile in the twentieth century, while building upon it by connecting this automobile-centric hotel chain’s newest property, to Amsterdam. As the hotel is directly connected to Amsterdam’s city center by way of metro, bus, and tram, it is a revised hotel typology; expanding on the chain's twentieth century origins, while updating amenities for travelers living in the twenty-first century.

Read more about the Van der Valk Hotel

Location
 
Tommaso Albinonistraat 200 
1083 HM Amsterdam  
the Netherlands

Program
 
Hotel, Restaurant, Wellness

Size
 
26.000 m2

Date of design 
2014-2017

Date of completion 
2020

Project team 
Wiel Arets, Joris van den Hoogen, Jochem Homminga, Jos Beekhuijzen 

Collaborators 
Louise Bjørk, Jelle Homburg, Bram van Grinsven, Xander van Dijk

Client 
Van der Valk

Consultants 
Pieters Bouwtechniek, Linthorst Techniek BV, Deerns