The Edge / PLP Architecture

Architects PLP Architecture

Location The Zuidas, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Interior Design Fokkema & Partners

Area 40000.0 m2

Project Year 2015

Photographs Ronald Tilleman, Raimond Wouda

Ronald Tilleman

From the architect. Situated in the centre of Amsterdams Zuidas business district, The Edge is an office
building which opens itself up to the city with its 15-storey atrium. The atrium acts as a window
between the world of work and the outside, as well as providing a social heart for the building, and
serving as an environmental buffer to reduce energy use. The client, a Dutch developer devoted to
architectural innovation, asked for an ambitious building which would set new standards for office
design in multiple areas, including sustainability, technology, workplace design, structural and faade
engineering . Above all, the brief was to create an inspirational business environment.
 Ronald Tilleman

Designing a cutting edge office building that would be futureproof required PLP to anticipate new
patterns of work: people in the knowledge economy have the flexibility to work from wherever they
want, at any time, and with whatever degree of social interaction they want. In this context, the
utilitarian approach to office design developed in the last century has become obsolete, and
technological innovation has enhance the toolbox available to architects significantly. The claims
towards efficiency that have long been used by architects to justify their workplace designs are no
longer relevant. For the Edge, PLPdevised spaces that produce a multiplicity of moods and atmospheres
within the workplace, leveraging a wide variety of technologies and intensifying social interaction
through spatially specific design strategies.

Ronald Tilleman

To create an exceptional contemporary working environment, PLP focused on the buildings atrium as
the key to its success. More than just a grand statement, the atrium became an integral part of how the
building reimagined the workplace. We infused this massive space with vertical layers of activity and
transformed it into an essential spatial component, the social nucleus of the building. The bright,
expansive space forms an architectural response to highly specific occupier demands on the building.
The Edge offers numerous different types of working, meeting, and breakout environments, and sets a
new benchmark for the built environment by prioritising the comfort, health and productivity of its
users.

Raimond Wouda

That atrium is also the place where new working patterns meet digital systems. Rather than thinking of
the technological systems in the building as autonomous and discrete layers, PLP used them to devise
new types of workspace. People have the flexibility to work anywhere in the building; and with the help
of a dedicated mobile app, people can find each other, look for a quiet empty desk and adjust the
temperature and lights levels to their preferences. The technology is also designed to manage energy
use by making users aware of how much energy they use, wherever they work in the building.

Section

The Edge demonstrates that the pursuit of a vibrant and collaborative work environment can come
together successfully with achieving the highest level of sustainability possible for a building. It is
officially considered to be the worlds most sustainable office building, having been awarded the highest
rating ever recorded by the Building Research Establishment (BRE), the global assessor of sustainable
buildings. The project achieved Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment
Methodology (BREEAM) certification for new construction of Outstanding and a score of 98.36 % by
employing both innovative smart technologies as well as a holistic attitude to sustainability. While
sustainability as a purely technological narrative has been exhausted by its overuse, the Edge creates a
radically new working environment which is enabled by sustainable technologies.

Ronald Tilleman

Fine tuning the shape and orientation of the Edge was the initial step in achieving the exceptional
climatic and energy performance of the headquarters. The arrangement of large floor plates organised
around a grand 15-storey north-facing atrium allows natural daylight to reach the vast majority of the
office spaces, while the load-bearing structure and smaller glazed openings of the south facing facades
provide thermal mass and shade. The atrium is the lung of the building, ventilating the office space
while providing a buffer with the exterior in a way which reduces energy use in both summer and
winter. As well as its energy-neutral temperature control, energy efficient design and green energy-
generating technology, the Edge captures rainwater and stores it underground for use flushing toilets
and watering plants in the interior and exterior gardens.
People Products

Architect: Structural System

PLP Architecture Concrete

Ibex House, 42-47 Minories Steel Frame in Atrium
EC3N 1 DY
London, UK Exterior Cladding

Personnel in architect's firm who should Metal panels: Rollecate (facade contractor)
receive special credit:
Metal/glass curtain wall: Rollecate (facade
Ron Bakker, Founding Partner (registered contractor)
architect in UK)
Other cladding unique to this project:Solar
Architect of record: Panels - also provided by Rollecate (facade
contractor)
OeverZaaijer
Roofing
Interior designer:
Glass Roof: Brakel Atmos
Fokkema & Partners
Windows
Engineers:
Metal frame: Integrated
Structural: Van Rossum Consulting Engineers
Glazing
MEP: Deerns
Glass: Rollecate (facade contractor)
Consultants
Skylights: Glass Roof: Brakel Atmos
Sustainability Consultant: C2N
Bouwmanagement Integrated Window Blinds: M&N Projecten
Building Physics: LBP Sight
Landscape Design: Delta Vorm Groep Interior Finishes

General contractor: Special surfacing: Green Wall: Maars Living

Walls
G&S Bouw
Carpet: Expona by LEOXX (restaurant and
Photographer: meeting centres)
Project carpet by Desso (offices)
Ronald Tillemans - +31 10 4952316 Walton Uni Marmoleum by Forbo (offices)
Copyright Ronald Tillemans Rugs by Danskina (offices)
Horizon Photoworks - +31 10 245 07 07 Furnishings
Copyright Horizon Photoworks, Interior
Architect Fokkema & Partners Fixed seating: Smeulders Interieurgroep

Raimond Wouda - +31 6 50250404 Textiles: Kvadrat

Copyright Raimond Wouda
Kitchens: Vijverborgh
Helene Binet +44 (0)20 7209 9596 Various brands among which: Vitra, Fritz
Copyright Helene Binet Hansen, B&B Italia, Arper, Hay, Ahrend
(workstations)
Dirk Verwoerd - +31 33 461 57 57 Copyright
Dirk Verwoerd Lighting

Size: Interior ambient lighting: Various brands for

pendants and lamps, among which: Axo, Flos,
430,000 square feet Secto, Diesel, Moooi, Hollands Licht

Cost: Dimming system or other lighting

controls: Main lighting system: Philips Power
$86 million Over Ethernet

Completion date: Energy

May 2015 Energy management or building automation

system: Johnson Controls

Other unique products that contribute to

sustainability:Building Mobile App: Blinq
Systems