The UID Cube—Amsterdam

Situated at the entrance to Amsterdam's new Urban Interactive District (UID), The Cube uses well-crafted design to create healthy work environments connected to nature and the public realm. The pedestrian-scaled podium anchors the building into its surroundings, while a rotated cube floats freely above, enveloped in a mysterious, metallic cloud. The cube is aligned with southern solar exposure, enabling sunlight to penetrate through a large atrium in its center, daylighting spaces on the north side of the volume.

The Cube is an iconic object for the new high-density district and the Netherlands' most desired and energy-efficient workplace. Its five-story commercial podium is an interactive grid-frame with color-coded civic inserts. Elevators and a wrapping staircase are carved out of the grid, providing public access to the sixth-floor roof commons, which acts as hinge between base and tower. The cube's façade of overlapping brass rods shades the volume of single- and multi-tenant office floors, and within, a complex "beehive" atrium of social spaces and stairways. Natural ventilation is incorporated extensively, a critical element in a suite of measures designed to achieve net-zero energy status. The Cube was a finalist in an international invited competition