The Traveller

Transparent Social Hub A bold architectural statement at the heart of new Amsterdam innovation district Cumulus Park in the up-and-coming Zuidoost area, the Traveller is a curvilinear glass pavilion. With its smooth organic form, it helps define the new neighborhood and is a meeting place for students, employees from nearby offices, entrepreneurs and local residents to come together. The Traveller combines the innovation ambition of Cumulus Park with the cosiness of a living room. Its sleek, high-quality roof sits above a highly transparent facade and a warm interior with differences in height and openness. By combining a clear glass façade with natural materials and colors, the boundaries blur as if there is no distinction between inside and outside. Juxtaposing these elements with an interior of rich colors and soft textures generates an intimate indoor space that is relaxed and comfortable, with a restaurant on the ground floor and a versatile space upstairs that offer opportunity for meetings and events. Following the Levels The Traveller is designed to be seamlessly integrated with its surroundings, creating a dynamic relationship between the interior and exterior. It makes optimal use of the differences in level of the area, including a lower-level bicycle route, a landscaped park and a higher-lying road. These height differences in the ground level continue in the pavilion. The concrete stairs in the park connect exactly to the concrete stairs in the interior, with only the glass facade as a separation. Free from the Façade The client’s brief was a flexible transparent building with an open, airy, and flowing interior adaptable to changing functions. The result is a sleek, organically curved glass pavilion with a freestanding wooden element containing all functions, that never touches the glass façade. For long-term flexibility, this separation provides the freedom to adjust the core if needed, while the open layout of both floors anyway allows for variation in short-term use. Solar Shading The Traveller incorporates very large glass panels with a width of 2.4 meters and a height of almost 4 meters. Only two panels were needed in the lower parts of the building and three panels on the highest part. Following the desired transparency and curvature there were limitations in foils and in thickness to mitigate solar radiation. An engineering system was required, combining interior sun shading with drawing warm air from right behind the facade, which reduces the heating of the space. Combined with light reflecting indoor blinds, warm air between the glass facade and blind is extracted into a cove in the wooden ceiling. Detailing The wooden ceiling of the pavilion has the double curved shape of a ship’s hull and, for instance, consists of 250 unique fins in the roof’s outer edge, with curved and twisted parts in larch wood. Modelling the connections was a challenge because the shape of the roof edge is not the same as the facade contours. Additionally, because the roof slopes slightly and is designed as a green roof, at its lowest point it includes specialized drains.