Neutelings Riedijk Architecten is an architecture firm based in Rotterdam, Netherlands, founded by Willem-Jan Neutelings and Michiel Riedijk.
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The work of Neutelings-Riedijk Architects has been characterized as having a sculptural, often anthropomorphic quality and a playfulness of form while following a clear rationality in programming and context.[1] Because of the public nature of most of the firm's work, Neutelings and Riedijk see this sculptural quality as a way to communicate the building's role within its urban or social context. [2]
One of the firm's first buildings was the Veenman Printworks in Ede, Netherlands. The firm's rational approach to space planning can clearly be seen in this project, in which a central open-air courtyard separates the building into its two basic programmatic elements: the printing operations and the administrative functions. The building is wrapped in a skin composed of glass tiles, each with screen-printed characters on the back of each panel. The logo of the company (the letters Va) literally act as a column, announcing the entrance of the building while supporting a portion of the upper floor. The entire envelope was intended to act as part of the graphic identity for the printing firm.[3]
Widely acclaimed is the Shipping and Transport College in Rotterdam, completed in 2005. Like the Veenman Printworks, the sculptural form and graphic quality of the skin are intended to act as a communications device enveloping rigorously-conceived programmatic elements.[4] The building sits at the southeast corner of the Lloydspier, a reclaimed pier now undergoing redevelopment. The design of the building takes many of its cues from the shipping industry, using blue and white corrugated panels in a checkerboard pattern that evoke the image of stacked intermodal containers widely seen at the Port of Rotterdam. An auditorium is cantilevered from the top floor, offering views of the Maas River and Europort below.
Neutelings-Riedijk was chosen to redesign the campus of the Cincinnati Art Museum in Cincinnati, Ohio. The project includes over 50,000 additional square feet and the remodelling of existing buildings on the campus. The proposal is expected to be unveiled in 2008. It will be the firm's first project in the United States.[5]