Games With Spirit, in Praise of Small Scale With Big Range


architects NL Architects
project Basket bar, Utrecht, Nizozemska
written by Krešimir Ivaniš

 

The Utrecht University campus has been turned by OMA from a single-purpose space to a city space, while the existing library with its extension, bar-café and basketball court has become an informal meeting place for students, teachers and athletes by day and night. The site is surrounded by Van Unnik’s 80-metre tower from the ’60s and Koolhaas’s nearby Educatorium from 1997. The library’s height of only 2.6 m has been increased by sinking the external “pool” and the café by 1.2 m. The common ceiling/roof, 70 cm thick and fenced by a 9 m net, is used as a 19 x 21 m court for amateur basketball.