Studio Thonik

Stunningly different: a project with a mission in Amsterdam

Century-old, typically narrow brick houses, their gabled Renaissance façades reflected by the Old Town’s ‘grachten’, the ubiquitous canal system – this is the slightly clichéed picture conjured up by Amsterdam, and it could not be further away from bold, contemporary architecture. The Netherlands, though, have been a hotbed for modern art and radical design innovation since the 1920s: we owe to creative Dutch minds, from Piet Mondriaan to Gerrit Rietveld to Rem Koolhaas, some of the most disruptive evolutions in the way we interact with colours, shapes and living spaces. Accordingly, ‘studio thonik’– a new building in Amsterdam that has become instantly iconic – is not nearly as unexpected as it might seem at first sight.

It is nonetheless highly unusual in more than one respect. A foray into architecture by a gifted graphic designer who is at the same time the building’s owner, it defied conventions right from the start. A multi-purpose construction with long term, built-in flexibility, it is sustainable not simply by its execution, but by its very concept. And with its dazzling striped façades, it has transformed a small, rather unpromising lot on nondescript Wibaustraat, the main arterial road south of the city centre, into an overnight landmark.