Hilton
Airport Hotel
Amsterdam
Architects: Mecanoo Architects // Project size: 34.000 m² GFA // Completion: 2016 // Awards: European Hotel Design Award 2016 - Architecture Newbuild // Sustainability certification: BREEAM Very Good
Behind the striking facade of the Hilton Amsterdam Airport Hotel are 433 hotel rooms with a restaurant, spa and fitness area, conference centre and a ballroom for 600 people. Underneath the hotel is an underground car park with over 130 parking lots. Via the so-called "Traverse", the hotel is directly connected to the passenger terminal of Schiphol Airport Amsterdam, the fifth largest airport in Europe, and is located close to the old Hilton Hotel, Schiphol Boulevard, a shopping district and the World Trade Center (WTC).
The architectural firm Mecanoo designed the façades of the new Hilton Hotel with unusual diagonal lines composed of grey and white glass elements and diamond-shaped windows. An indentation runs from the ground floor upwards along the façade and lends the building architectural extravagance. Statically, the design presented a great challenge. The hotel rooms are built in a carreé around a central, inviting courtyard. Using a BIM model, the architecture was planned in an integrated way with the structural design and geotechnical engineering, creating a complete picture at an early stage of the design and construction process. This made it possible to react quickly to any changes in the design and to plan and work very cost-effectively.
The courtyard is also exceptional. It is flooded with light through the glass roof over the centre of the building, 42 metres above the ground, and through a large window in the north facade. The rooms facing inwards are thus supplied with daylight. The window spans seven floors, from the second to the ninth. Three more floors of hotel rooms hover above the glass band. With only one pier, these floors are supported by a grid integrated into the walls of the rooms and transfer some of their weight into the main supporting structure of the building. ABT was responsible for the structural design and advised on the excavation.
Scope of services: Structural engineering, geotechnical engineering
Photos: Hans Roggen, Mecanoo
