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Jakoba Mulderhuis

The future-proof and sustainable Jakoba Mulder House of the Amsterdam College Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) is the final piece of the Amstel Campus. This new building will accommodate 6,000 to 7,000 students from the Faculty of Engineering and include about 25,000 square meters of educational program. ABT, along with BREED Integrated Design, provided the structural design and was responsible for geotechnical consulting.

Client	Hogeschool van Amsterdam
Completion time	2012-2022
Market	Educational buildings
Team
4 specialists

In collaboration with	Powerhouse Company, de Architekten Cie., Marc Koehler Architects
Location	Amsterdam
Project scope	25,000 m2 BVO
Expertises
Minimal footprint Smart design

2012

Designed by former HvA students

The new building consists of two parts: a 13-floor high-rise and a 6-floor low-rise. It connects to the adjacent Theo Thijssen House. Former HvA architecture students Marc Koehler (Marc Koehler Architects) and Nanne de Ru (Powerhouse Company) worked on the design of the Jakoba Mulder House and also involved the Architekten Cie. on the design team in 2014. The architects are the [GP1] first generation of graduates of the HvA trained with project-based education and have maximized their positive experiences with “blended learning” in the new design.

‘Blended learning’

Blended learning basically means that the interior can be easily adapted to changing views on studying and teaching. As such, the new Jakoba Mulder House has a flexible design with columns, movable internal walls and smart installations. Lecturers can “customize” spaces with a mix of learning formats and spatial arrangements, including group work at table islands, classrooms, labs, concentration areas and meeting spaces.

2012

Paperless design

The Jakoba Mulder House is one of the first projects in the Netherlands to be tendered on the basis of Building Information Modeling (BIM). The full specifications were provided digitally and the digital integral revit model from BREED ID, ABT and the other consultants formed the basis of the contract. A strong example of ‘paperless design’. In light of the long design process, BIM provided the flexibility to make changes relatively quickly and for everyone to see.

2019

Design challenges

According to project construction manager Eric Brok, the design challenges in this project were there for the taking. In particular, the foundation of the high-rise was a challenge for the structural engineers, a collaboration of BREED ID and ABT, to get their teeth into. “A 14-story building should really rest on the third sand layer. But we were looking for a solution to not have to go deeper than the second layer of sand. That means fewer risks and significant less costs and materials,” Brok said.

A slab foundation proved to be the solution. This provided a well-controlled settlement as well as much more placement flexibility for the piles. It was easier to tackle the many obstacles in the subsurface, including the remains of an old pumping station.” Brok: “By clever use of that freedom, we were able to drill holes at strategic locations in the pumping station to install the new piles. This allowed the pumping station to remain largely in the ground.” The additional materials used for the slab foundation were compensated by providing cavities in the slab in non-critical areas to be used as water basins for the sprinkler systems.

2022