Mitros Housing Corporation
For the next 15 years, Mitros will occupy a 1980s building on Koningin Wilhelminalaan in Utrecht. Contact with clients is very important to this housing corporation. This underlay their wish for a transparent entrance hall with reception and client interview facilities. The existing entrance hall was extended by a pavilion-like newbuild with a client-friendly, transparent and welcoming interior. The pavilion is joined to the architecture of the existing building by a construction of white, tapering aluminium box-section mouldings. The structural work in spruce plywood gives the newbuild an airy, warm character.
Mitros aims to transition to activity-based working with an occupation level of 80% for the whole organization. This will entail adaptations by both the organization and the staff. The new workstyle can only succeed, in our view, if the working surroundings consist of a single, continuous space, without obstacles, where people can see and find one another and where they can intuitively find a suitable location to work in.
The werkLANDSCHAP; varied, warm and flexible
The werkLandschap connects to activity based working in a sustainable, flexible open plan office. The werkLANDSCHAP is a “patchwork model” which is based partly or wholly on the preservation and sublimation of existing layouts, materials and infrastructure. The loadbearing structure, fire and smoke compartments and emergency escape routes remain unchanged. Server rooms, print rooms and other services-dependant spaces such as kitchens and similar facilities are also reused. The interior space is opened up from facade to facade, allowing daylight to penetrate deep into the building. Existing corridors are eliminated. Seating units arranged along the circulation zone provide space for diverse uses, such as informal meetings, phoning, reading or small talk. The corridor is transformed into working space, resulting in a highly favourable net/gross ratio.
The werkLANDSCHAP offers a varied, warm, lively and flexible concept with a combination of open and closed spaces, resulting in a pleasant, non-sterile appearance which contrasts with the sometimes rather desolate emptiness associated with the new workstyle and clean desk policies. This atmosphere is boosted by the patchwork-pattern carpeting.
