Amsterdam’s Nieuw Zuid District is characterized by an attention to design detail, context, contrast, and scale—trademarks of Hendrik Petrus Berlage, the early 20th century Dutch architectural master who inspired the Amsterdam School and whose Master Plan for Nieuw Zuid is considered one of the great exemplars of its kind. SOM’s thoughtful design for the last developable site in the district could thus be no less than, as its designer suggested, “an essay in the responsibility of architecture in which the individual achievement must be in harmony with the collective sense of design.”

Project Facts

Completion Year: 1997
Project Area: 4,000 m²
Building Height: 22 m
Number of Stories: 5

The five-story Apollo Office Building is located in the historic center of Amsterdam. Located on a very tight site with a limited number of sunlit days in the year, designers used unconventional shading devices both “off-the-shelf” and “Leading Edge” to maximize daylight, reduce operational costs and increase indoor environmental quality for its employees.