Spectacular new building completes Oosterdok Island

Booking.com City Campus

Last June, the Booking.com City Campus in the heart of Amsterdam was officially opened and put into use. An important milestone for the travel platform, as for the first time in more than 10 years all 6,500 employees are working together in one building. Both the new main building and the adjoining residential part of the 65,000 m2 campus were designed by UNStudio, which worked closely with BPD Gebiedsontwikkeling and the Booking.com team on this. The main goal was to create a contemporary working environment for all employees, but also to create the healthiest and most sustainable urban building project.

UNStudio was approached by Booking.com and BPD Area Development back in 2015 to design the new City Campus on Oosterdok Island. "The main goal was to bring the employees - who at that time were still scattered throughout the city - together in one sustainable, healthy and inspiring location," explains Ben van Berkel of UNStudio. "But also to attract new talent and to stimulate connection and spontaneous encounters. Both between employees and with visitors, residents
and passersby."

Office workplace of the future 

An architectural competition with various presentations and discussions followed, in which, for example, Van Berkel's vision of the office workplace of the future stood out positively. "Moreover, together with students from the Harvard Graduate School of Design, I had been researching health and sustainability in buildings for years," he says. "From carbon footprint to indoor climate, where in addition to the quality of light, air and acoustics, the influence of materials on our health was also an important theme. Among other things, the studies led to a new method for significantly reducing sick leave - through a better indoor climate. Apart from the design we had made, Booking.com was very interested in these themes."

Approached as a clubhouse

"The Oosterdok Island is a complex location," Van Berkel explains. "Because the Booking.com City Campus is the capstone of the fairly high densification of the island, we had to deal with all kinds of urban planning constraints. For example, regarding size and scale. Moreover, Booking.com wanted a campus-like layout, in which hybrid forms of work and cross-pollination had to be central. To gain inspiration for this, we visited various international tech companies. Nevertheless, it was ultimately decided to develop a completely new and proprietary concept. Within this concept, the headquarters was approached as a clubhouse, where employees like to go and go often. Ample break-out spaces, as well as rich use of wood and greenery were important focal points here." In particular, BPD added additional requirements around living, building quality and budget, he says. "Based on these, we started working on the design very energetically."

Physical, mental and social health

UNStudio's design introduces three layers of health, implemented ambitiously. "First is physical health," Van Berkel illustrates. "The building encourages employees to move more in numerous ways. For example, the (fire) stairs are clearly placed in plain sight and the lobby is not on the first floor but on the second floor." The second layer concerns social health, which focuses particularly on community building around the workplaces. The many restaurants, cafes, plazas and breakout spaces play a key role in this. "In addition, we paid attention to the mental health of employees. After all, everyone has to feel comfortable and safe in the new building. In addition to natural materials, daylight and greenery, good acoustics make an essential contribution to this."

Colossal on the outside, small on the inside

For the exterior of the new Booking.com City Campus, a relationship was sought with the robust qualities and industrial history of the Amsterdam harbor. For example, the building has the robustness of a ship, while in the interior the liveliness of Amsterdam's inner city predominates. "Although the new building is colossal in size, upon entering you immediately discover how small-scale and diverse all the spaces and facilities are constructed," Van Berkel says. "The human scale predominates. Every employee can find a pleasant and suitable landing, brainstorming or workstation at any time of the day. To ensure a comfortable indoor climate, fresh air is continuously supplied under the floors, while radiant ceilings ensure a pleasant temperature. Attention has been paid to good acoustics throughout the building, and the two atriums with walkways and internal balconies allow daylight to flow far into the building, further softening its size and scale."

The commissioning of the Booking.com City Campus has created enormous vibrancy on the edge of Oosterdokseiland, Van Berkel concludes. "This also ties in with the ambition of the so-called Fourth Memorandum, through which the government wants to create more bustle around its public transport stations. For example, by considering stations as the heart rather than the back of the city. This building gives this ambition an extra impulse, as a termination of Amsterdam Central Station. In doing so, we are also adding extra value to the city."