Construction of MVRDV’s Matrix ONE project, a laboratory and office building in the heart of Amsterdam Science Park, has been completed. 

The six-story, 140,000-square-foot structure is the largest of seven buildings that now make up the Matrix Innovation Center, a site for scientists and entrepreneurs to develop sustainable solutions for current and future issues. 

As the main hub at the Center, Matrix ONE aims to be a guiding example to the other buildings at the Amsterdam Science Park. The building was made to be demountable, in which connections such as screws and bolts allow elements to be detached and reused. In addition, its floors are made using prefabricated concrete slabs with no fixed connections. 

The platform Madaster was used to provide a material passport system that registers all the materials and products incorporated in the building. It provides insight into the carbon dioxide storage for over 120,000 individual components. According to MVRDV, over 90% of the building’s materials can be reused again. 

Matrix ONE serves as the central social hub of the campus. This is punctuated by a large “social staircase” located next to the main entrance on the building’s southern corner. It is conceptualized as a continuation of the zig-zagging paths found throughout the campus.

The staircase features tribune-style seating for presentations, tables for informal meetings, and coffee stations. The interior design of the space is highlighted by lush green walls and soft felt finishes that reduce sound reverberation. The building also hosts a 100-seat auditorium. 

The roof includes over 10,750 square feet of solar panels that generate a portion of the building’s energy. Internet-connected lighting and heating fixtures work to reduce energy consumption. The building also promotes healthier behaviors by encouraging people to use the stairs instead of the elevators, which are located deeper in the building.

There’s also a bicycle parking facility accessible via a secondary entrance at the rear of the building. Combined, these sustainability and health strategies contribute to Matrix ONE’s BREEAM-Excellent certification. 

“Matrix ONE offered an excellent opportunity for us to test a number of the carbon-reduction strategies we have long been investigating at MVRDV,” said MVRDV partner Frans de Witte. “The building is state-of-the-art now, but it also acknowledges that the state-of-the-art is constantly changing. So we made both the interior spaces and the technical installations that serve them as flexible as possible; offices can easily be modified to become labs and vice versa, and labs can be easily upgraded with new systems to accommodate changing standards. In the decades to come when the building is no longer cutting-edge, it will become a source to harvest materials from for other buildings. In the future, we hope this is how all buildings will work — and we’re excited to see Matrix ONE become a standard-bearer in our own office.”

Watch an illustration of Matrix ONE's circular approach in the video below.