ARCHITECTURE >
Living infrastructure
Written by: Jason Hovet
Photo by: Luminum

Opening its first building in the spring of 2003, The Park, which sits off the D1 highway out of town and will comprise 12 buildings when it's finished, is nearly halfway completed. The technology park, housing, among others, IBM, Dell and DHL, incorporates nature into a campus-style design, giving employees a welcome break from their computers.

Enclosed by the Datum wall, it's a warm spring day all year in the atrium gardens, bringing grass, plants and small ponds inside. Besides offering brief sanctuary, office dwellers on this side of the building can keep windows open year round.

The Avenue connects the two rows of buildings and serves as its social heart complete with a central plaza, a rolling green, a putting green, a stream, benches, and "candles" that light up at night.

While the buildings were designed with uniformity in mind, it was decided to distinguish the reception areas with unique creations. The result: interiors incorporating fish aquariums or layered glass (both pictured), as well as a flower case and jade stone.

Designed by Dutch landscape artists, the Meadows, with native plants, trees and grass, provide a quiet place to relax.

Tenants can choose an overhead or under-floor cooling system, as well as an open-plan or cellular office layout - or a combination.

The most striking part of the project, the Datum wall is transparent during the day, but lights up with nearly 15 million color combinations at night. Intended to unify the buildings visually, the wall offers an elegant apparition to cars passing by.

Photo: Věroslav Sixt from the outside Jakub Cigler, architect, Cigler & Marani What challenges and opportunities did the project's location and size present? To create a small piece of a city is a challenge. I brought the idea of the Datum Wall to separate the buildings from the highway by building a huge, 650-metre transparent screen. We also wanted to create more than an office, so you're really in an office but surrounded by greenery, which is better to look at than some gray buildings. Another challenge was the size of the project. The identical buildings help to create a focus [for passing cars] as different buildings become too chaotic. Finally, the plaza pulls the project together.