Cultural Centre CREA | Joost Glissenaar Architects

Where industry complements theatre and where history meets the present! Nieuwe Achtergracht 168-172 is a former factory complex comprising 8 building sections constructed in the period from 1845 to 1925. Now that the Roeterseiland area is being redeveloped, the University of Amsterdam has decided to accommodate the CREA cultural centre in the building. The cultural function of CREA is a wonderful added feature of the University site around Roeterseiland. CREA organizes courses and workshops in the fields of drama, dance, music, expressive arts, video, photography, literature and new media, and produces around a hundred performances, concerts, manifestations and exhibitions each year. Important program components of the cultural centre are a café, a theatre hall and a music hall. It was not possible to create large, column-less spaces within the existing buildings. The decision was therefore made to demolish the western section of the complex, with the exception of the facade of the Nieuwe Achtergracht. The new building to be constructed on the demolition site will house all the studios, the theatre hall and the music hall. Synonymous with the courtyard between the retained front and rear factory sections, this new building will be dissected by a central gallery in which the entire infrastructure of this building section is organized. The visibility of the climate control system in the gallery is a striking reference to the industrial history of the complex and will be a dramatic ornament in this central space. Furthermore, the division of the new section refers to the original configuration of the factory complex. The facades of the new section are an explicit modern day interpretation of the facades of the retained buildings, being a grid of vertical windows. An ‘interior wall’ will be erected behind the facade retained on the Nieuwe Achtergracht, for the purpose of the ‘box in box’ construction for the music halls. This ‘interior wall' is rendered visible from the outside by making the window openings in the ‘interior wall’ slightly smaller than their counterparts in the 'exterior wall'. This clearly shows that the facade which has been retained is a shell, and that it does not correspond fully with the new volume behind the facade.