BRINK CENTER – HENGELO

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Masterplan
COUNTRY: The Netherlands
CITY: Hengelo
YEAR: 1998
COMPETITION: 1995
CLIENT: ING VASTGOED
PARTNER: Bureau Boukunde, Rotterdam
PHOTOS: © Christian Richters, BOLLES+WILSON

Vroom & Dreesmann – A big shed department store lands in Hengelo NL in 1998

BOLLES+WILSON won the competition with a choreographed ensemble of heterogeneous objects:

A shopping passage with housing above
A department store (Vroom & Dreesmann)
A Klok Tower – which anchors both the BRINK ensemble and the Hengelo market square

Three Tower Alchemy

digital klok – market day

THE SHORT LIFE OF A DIGITAL KLOK:
The BRINK campanile (Klok) forms a triangle with city hall + church towers. After 10 years the Klok came down with digital Alzheimer's. BOLLES+WILSON were asked for an avatar. The gold angel (local artist) blowing a raspberry in the direction of Enschede survived.

The 5 floors of housing above the shopping passage have cosy wood paneled internal balcony access

left - V&D shed, right - housing

The large plate carpark below V&D + passage at the time won the Dutch – underground parking garage of the year award

The market square has now undergone green washing, also the klok tower – we hope!!
(on the right – the condemned V&D)

BAZAAR GATE

Detail

CITY: Tirana

CLIENT: The Bregu Group

YEAR: 2024 – 2028

LOCAL FACILITATING OFFICE: X-PLAN

A 23 floor residential tower crowned by 5 floors of golden penthouses. It stands between Tirana’s central Skanderbeg Square and the revitalized Bazaar. A back seat to the Prime Minister promoted cluster of mega statements that will line up next to the gold façade of BOLLES+WILSON’s 2025 Intercontinental Hotel. We have sketched our golden cones against the pink matrix of Tirana’s jumbled DNA, punctuated by two more BOLLES+WILSON planned projects – The Lets Twist Again Tower and in the background the Vasarely Tower. We are grateful to Edi Rama for pumping Bazaar Gate’s original 15 floors to the 28 floors now under construction.

ORIGINAL 15 FLOOR

BAZAAR GATE CONCEPT

WEST ELEVATION - 28 FLOORS

NORTH ELEVATION

SOUTH ELEVATION - 28 FLOORS

EAST ELEVATION

SETBACK REQUIREMENTS DETERMINE PLANS

BAMBOO PRINTED FACADE - RENDERING X-PLAN

FAÇADE EVELOUTION

First came a Bamboo leaf printed pattern. Then in a workshop two façade proposals by X-Plan our Albanian collaborators were mathematically synthesized to produce the window/loggia matrix.

FROM THE SHOPPING COURT

CONCEPT B+W

RENDERINGS X-PLAN

PENTHOUSE REFINEMENT

As with all BOLLES+WILSON projects the penthouses were fine-tuned in an iterative exchange between sketched ambiences/compositions and the exactitude of digital co-ordination/technical requirements. The final, somewhat Chinese, sketch dissolves the golden crown in a nirvana of cloud.

KALDEWEI COMPETENCE CENTER

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Retail

COUNTRY: German

CITY: Ahlen

YEAR: 2005

COMPETITION: Invited, 1ˢᵗ Prize

GFA: 1.460 sqm

CLIENT: Franz Kaldewei GmbH & Co. KG

TALE OF THE TUB

Kaldewei are the Mercedes of bath manufacturers. Their robust 3.5mm tubs are formed over an iron mold by robotic arms (the steel screams while being pressed into shape). Tubs are then enameled, the historic but still functioning enamel kiln is glimpsed as the conclusion of the visitor’s trajectory through the new information and exhibition center. Façade planks (wrapping both new visitor facilities, adjacent smelting plant and warehouse) are enameled in the colours used for bathtubs. Entrance is across the paved plan of the original Kaldewei family villa, nearby are terracotta vats used in the nineteenth century for transporting vitreous enamel crystals.

KKC Plan at Ground level - PROMENADE ARCHITECTURAL

The façade Screens - plunging into a tub or choosing a whirlpool bath are discrete activities. The lobby is clad in a cosy mosaic of wooden panels with integrated lights and air outlets. The promenade architectural sequence leads up past a Bizatza tiled shower niche. Below - the wardrobe lurks behind the purple memory of the absent Kaldewei family house.

KKC Plan at upper level -EXHIBITION SALON

Like Carl Andre artworks, bathtub and shower tray designs are clustered in groups of four - spot-lit minimalist sculptures. On the grey salon end-wall are coloured wax circles by artist Gro Luhn. Beyond the salon visitors look down to the firey drama of the enamel kiln.

KKC Plan at lower level – PLUNGE CELLS

Purchasing a luxury whirlpool bath is similar to buying a small car, one demands a test drive or in this case a test bath. Toweling robes are donned in changing pods before progressing to sensuous cells, each with its own gestalt and bath model. Busloads of potential customers arrive from all over Europe engendering interesting sociological observations - Germans each require new bath water while Belgians are happy to sit in the water of the previous bather. Back in the lobby a gallery exhibition of historic bath artifacts was sketched but not realized.

Blackburn House

Detail

TYPOLOGY: Residential

COUNTRY: UK

CITY: London

YEAR: 1987

No grand statement rather a series of practical opportunities. First the restructuring of the row of rundown Mews Houses into a new white box. A large window breaks through the white façade, the view is not good, the glass is opaque, blinded.

Ground floor office, a two floor apartment housing, a collection; Barry Flanagan (hare), Scott Burton (chair), Andy Warhol (portrait), Bruce McLean (table), Ron Arad (table), Jasper Morrison (sofa). Interior details are added to this list – supporting column and cantilevered balcony in steel, a vitrine, a floating boat – seat – handrail – individual narratives in a limited range of materials.

The upper floor with its 14 m skylight-wall functions as gallery, the lower lobby as chair hall. Sitting on the central barge seat the visitor has reached the vortex of the composition hovering like the house itself, not quite part of London.