Key facts

Architecture studios: Studio Donna Van Milligen Bielke; Ard De Vries Architecten and Piet Oudolf (landscape architect)

Main sponsor: City of Groningen

Year of completion: 2022

Materials: black and white concrete, white-aluminium cladding, brick

Total area: 2 600 m2  

Prizes: 2023 BNA Building of the Year

City background

For years, theatre and dance companies were scattered around the city. In 2018, the municipality published an architectural competition to commission a new building to bring the four companies in one place and give them a permanent and visible address in a former industrial area, at the junction between the old and the new Groningen.

The brief for De Kunstwerf (‘the art yard’) consisted of 4 individual closed rehearsal spaces for the different theatre and dance companies with strict noise requirements. Each should have its own kitchenette, front door, and office.  

Competition entrants had to consider the remnants of this past, which include a row of workers’ houses, a large electric-power station (already home to a renowned dance company), a villa, and a small entrance pavilion, all dressed up in an eclectic livery of brown stock brick with stone and redbrick trim.

The project fulfils Groningen’s ambitions for high-quality architecture and responds to government cuts in budgets for theatre and dance companies.

Solution

The winning project proposed to organise the requested spaces and facilities around a series of interconnected courtyard gardens. The heart of De Kunstwerf is therefore not the building itself, but the inner garden, designed as a succession of public spaces that invites the audience to look inside and encourages interaction and cooperation between the companies.

The new building fits cleverly around the existing historic buildings, offering a nice passage with fine nooks and sitting niches. The central amphitheatre, positioned between all companies, serves as a central public gathering space.  

Where the site’s edges are free of buildings, the architects added arcades and colonnades to close the perimeter visually. Paved in brick, which ensures a certain continuity with the historic fabric, they open the place to the surrounding urban fabric.

Architects faced two major constraints. First, because of gas extraction in the region, Groningen is prone to earthquakes. Second, the rehearsal spaces needed to be acoustically insulated both from each other and the neighbours. They finally opted for a steel frame (bendy enough to withstand seismic shaking) clad with thick concrete for acoustical performance.

Criteria for high-quality (context, sense of place, diversity, beauty)

• The project smartly balances multiple interests and gives a spatial and material response to several challenges: it integrates the new building harmoniously with the historic buildings and urban fabric; it enables synergies among companies; it opens the place to the city; it gives visibility to the companies; it prevents noise pollution and is planned against earthquakes.
• The visual language is very graphic and certainly innovative in the Netherlands.
• De Kunstwerf does not focus on the theatre hall, but on the public sphere. By the nature of its design, De Kunstwerf is a cultural building that establishes a connection between residents and visitors. It also enables and supports synergies among the companies.
• The lower facade made of black polished concrete, with galleries and arches, feels almost classicist, while the white convex concrete elements that tower above it look industrial. The curved galleries function well as a transition area between inside and outside, and the vaulted white concrete creates changing shadow effects throughout the day.

Planning and management

The architectural design competition was organised in two stages, under the supervision of the city architect. 120 applicants submitted their vision for the project in written format. Then five architectural offices were invited to submit a sketch design – they were remunerated for this.
The selected architectural studio worked closely with the theatre and dance companies, and with municipal departments, taking their needs into account.

Under the leadership of a single project leader, several municipal departments were involved in the project: the Department for Culture, the Department for Urban Planning and Development, and the Department for Real Estate. Altogether, 10 civil servants from the municipality were involved throughout the procurement, design and construction process.

Budget and financing

• The total budget for the design and construction of the project was € 7 million:
• 52% funded by the City of Groningen
• 42% deriving from the rent paid by the dance and theatre companies
• 6% funded by the State

Transferable ideas

1. Make sure that you enable young architectural firms to apply for Architectural Design Competitions. Even if they cannot demonstrate extensive experience on similar projects, they can bring fresh and innovative ideas.
2. Consider the surrounding public space.
3. Design a building that suits the needs of the makers of culture, in which they can be visible, rather than a place for the exhibition of their work only.