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NL Architects www.nlarchitects.nl

Forum Groningen

By 29-05-2020

Forum Groningen is a new multifunctional building in the center of Groningen, a cultural ‘department store’ filled with books and images, that offers exhibition spaces, movie halls, assembly rooms, restaurants. The Forum aspires to become a platform for interaction and debate, a ‘living room’ for the city.

Forum Groningen is a new type of public space where the traditional boundaries between a library, a museum and a cinema dissolve. The building is designed as single clear volume to express the shared ambition to combine different facilities into one new compound.

Forum Groningen features an exceptional central space, the heart of the venue. The atrium works as a spatial interface that binds all functions. A series of stacked ‘squares’ emerges that are publicly accessible and provide entry to the ticketable activities. The specific layout offers continuously changing views on the surrounding city, culminating in the roof terrace, which serves as a viewing platform and outdoor theater.

Due to the triple glazing that is sun-resistant, the temperature inside the building is constant and comfortable. The optimized glass keeps out 70 percent of the heat. The remaining 30 percent is extracted at the top of the Atrium and stored in the ground to warm up the building in winter. In this way Forum actually ‘harvests’ energy, making it independent from fossil fuels.

Photos: Marcel van der Burg