Office Building Centraal Beheer
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Herman Hertzberger Download Original
Structuralist office building for Centraal Beheer Insurance Company, consisting of a collection of interpretable spatial units in open plan linked by a central core
The office building consists of 56 cubic elements of nine meters by nine meters, located around a core containing the lifts, stairs and bathrooms. In each block there are four of these elements per floor with a gap of three metres between them for human traffic. These larger structures are grouped into four quadrants of office space; north, south, east and west, and are held together by a central core containing the social centre of the building.
Each element is designed to be flexible and subject to the individual freedoms of its inhabitants. The building has an inter-penetrating grid of circulation and structure that leaves space for interpretable zones which can be modified for different purposes.
The building is constructed from concrete blocks, in combination with a visible supporting structure of precast concrete. The bottom floor houses the car park and the structure of this level is rotated 45 degrees relative to the superstructure.
Data
- Begun: 1968
- Completed: 1972
- Sector: Office
- Address: Prins Willem Alexanderlaan 651, Apeldoorn, Gelderland, The Netherlands, Netherlands
Materials 
Professional Team
- Architect: Herman Hertzberger
- Client: The Centraal Beheer Insurance Co-operative Society
- Mechanical engineer: Van Heugten
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