Architecture News Plus (ANP) – Architecture and Design Magazine

RVU Building

This is a project by MVRDV and it is located at Hilversum, Netherlands. Project's program: Office building. There are eight images for RVU Building.

: © MVRDV

Project details

Project name: RVU Building
Location: Hilversum, Netherlands
Program: Office building
Area: Project year: 1994-1997
Year: Project size: 1,600 m2
More details: Construction cost: 1.5 Million Euro
Client: RVU Broadcasting Company
Project by: MVRDV
Others: Facilitator Office: Bureau Bouwkunde • Structure: Pieters Bouwtechniek • Services: Ketel R.I. • Building Physics: DMGR • Contractor: Hein Schilder Bouw

Project images

Designer's statement

The RVU is one of the buildings which forms the 'campus' of co-operating television companies together with VPRO, VARA, and NPS. Initially, the location was intended to remain vacant, to ensure a continuing 'ecological link' with the Media park. The threat the RVU building might interrupt this ecological zone is neutralized precisely by the building.

The office is dug like a shaft into the top of the steepest flank of Hilversum Hill. The landscape and with it the ecological link carries on over the roof. The roof also functions as a public balcony with a view over the campus and the Media Park. The elevations and the outer surface of the cantilevered part are clad in Corten steel. A wide staircase bisects the volume which functions as a public route from the adjoining street, over the roof and down to the lower parts of the campus. The entrance to the office building is situated in the heart of the building, halfway up the staircase. The interior accommodates work spaces which are divided into three zones, each with its own office typology to suit the different departments within the company. One zone with randomly placed office units, a ‘double corridor zone’ flanked by individual offices and another type with a deeper office along a central hallway. The canteen is located at the end in the cantilevered part of the building; here the volume is cut off and the floor-to-ceiling height glazing provides a panoramic view over the campus and the Media Park.

The overhang forms a porch that provides for a drop-off point for visitors and a bicycle shed. The ground surface beneath the building volume is strewn with pieces of lava spotlights which resemble glowing embers. The field of lava and the Corten steel cladding together form a compact undulating space to serve as an introduction to the building.