Forum Groningen Multifunctional Building

Forum Groningen is NOT a library, NOT a museum, NOT a cinema, but a new type of public space where the traditional borders between these institutes will dissolve. Information will be presented thematically in a way that transcends the different media. Forum Groningen features an exceptional central space, an innovative atrium that with its horizontal ‘tentacles’ forms the pumping heart of the venue. The void works as a spatial interface that binds all functions, movie theatre, book collection, expo, auditorium, and as such hopes to catalyze the exchange of knowledge and ideas.

The building is designed as single clear volume to express the desire for synergy, to strengthen the shared ambition to combine different facilities into one new compound. A series of precise cuts nails the building on its site and generates a multitude of different appearances. A series of stacked ‘squares’ emerges that can be experienced as the continuation of the network of open spaces in the city of Groningen. The vertical squares are publicly accessible and provide entry to the ticketable activities. The specific layout offers continuously changing perspectives on the surrounding city and culminates in the roof terrace, a viewing platform and outdoor theater. Forum Groningen has been engineered “to accommodate finding not searching”. The design stimulates exploration. It hopes to catalyze the desire to wander, to ‘browse’ endlessly through a staggering interior landscape.

The main bearing construction comprises two concrete cores, with volumes of steel in-between. The Forum is positioned on top of the parking garage. The garage is a water retaining basin with diaphragm walls of 20 meters hight. The architecture poses a challenge to its construction: to create a unique spacial experience on each square the columns are not allowed to be aligned on any floor. In addition, the façades lean over. A spider web of bearing vertical lines is created; these lines provide driving horizontal forces as well. This irregular superstructure has been designed to fit on top of the regular design of the parking grid. Miraculously, like the Forum the parking garage also has a atrium in the middle. The facade is one continuous surface made of triple glazing end Wachenseller Dolomiet, a natural stone from the Munich area.