EYE Film Institute Netherlands

The EYE Film Institute is situated on a prime location at the bend of the River IJ, opposite the historical part of Amsterdam and the Central Station. The building is conceived as a highly tense and dynamic geometric solid. The light is reflected in multiple ways by smooth, crystalline surfaces, thus subjecting the building's appearance to permanent optical changes during the course of the day.

Both the architectural concept and urban implementation are based on an overlay of two creative disciplines that have at their core reality and fiction, illusion and real experience. Located on the interface between land and water; between the historic centre and the modern development area; the building finds itself in a constant dialogue with its surroundings. The area's distinctive character goes beyond the confines of the building, thus transforming the visit to the EYE into a sustained encounter between urban reality and cinematographic fiction.

The building's architectural formulation responds in multiple ways to the programme s demands of high functionality and sustainability. The building concept becomes the storyboard, the architecture the scenography. The entrance into the building is characterised by continuous spatial concentration and directed visual relations. Spatial development, light incidence and materiality define the path that leads from the southern glass front and the museum shop into the heart of the building. Whereas on the south side the building's shell opens fully onto the adjacent river, terrace-like steps allow access to the exhibition level, projection rooms and restaurant. Flowing transitions between the single functional areas underline the distinctive continuity and the dynamic of the room flow, thus transforming the usage into a physiologically tangible sequence of constantly changing spatial impressions.