Tall & Urban News

OMA has released images for the nhow Amsterdam RAI Hotel, showing that the building’s mega triangular volumes are almost completed.

The project is led by OMA Partner Reinier de Graaf, Dutch architect, architectural theorist, urbanist and writer.

Recent photographs show that the building has reached its highest point of construction at a height of 91 meters. nhow Amsterdam RAI Hotel will reach 25 floors and include 650 hotel rooms. The building will be among the largest hotels in the Benelux.

Located next to the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center, and connected via an underground concourse, nhow Amsterdam RAI will be a high-quality headquarter hotel for visitors, exhibitors, speakers, and organizing teams onsite.

The hotel, operated under NH Hotel Group’s nhow brand family (NH Hotel Group), will also serve as a new hub for business travelers, tourists and Amsterdam locals alike, with high-end gastronomy, spa facilities, meeting and conference rooms and lounges.

The building is characterized with its three shifted triangular volumes, stacked in such a way that the floor plan of the building rotates 60 degrees with each ascending volume. The architect takes inspiration from the once-famous triangular advertisement post called “Het Signaa”’ (The Signal) on Europaplein, the square in front of the RAI.

The hotel’s façade is made of aluminum and a filling of glass panels. The building has 24 floors, 19 of which are occupied by the hotel, with each floor accommodating 24 to 36 hotel rooms. The hotel lobby is spread over two floors, with separately rentable retail spaces on the ground floor and a hotel lounge and bar on the first floor.

At the Eastern side of the building, there is space for the loading and unloading of goods, taxi stands, a drop-off for bus passengers and access to the parking in the basement. Its two-story basement will contain 200 parking spaces, technical installation areas and a large part of the so-called “backofhouse” program of the hotel.

The building hosts public and semi-public facilities on its top floors, which are accessible through a lift from the hotel lobby and provide a panoramic view of Amsterdam. This area, named “On Air,” includes meeting and conference rooms, lounges and a broadcasting studio, from which a daily television show can be recorded. On Air is accessible both for hotel guests and other visitors.

nhow Amsterdam RAI hotel further integrates the RAI convention and exhibition center into the Zuidas, also through the incorporation of the dense flows of pedestrians, cyclists and automotive traffic that traverse the site.

Gert-Wim Bos from Cradle of Development (COD) said: “The building looks astonishing and already makes a welcome addition to the Amsterdam skyline. This has been an immensely complicated project, but we are delighted with the progress made. We are on track for an early 2020 opening.”

“The topping out ceremony is a culmination of a lot of hard work by the team, there were a lot of challenges with this project, which required everyone involved to pull together to make it happen, it is great to see that the end is finally in sight,” said Bas van Dam, CEO at Being Development.

The project is developed by COD with Being Development and is expected to open to the public in early 2020.

For more on this story, go to World Architecture.