This leisure center in Amsterdam by Dutch architects VenhoevenCS was designed as a fortress covered in plants. The building was designed as a city – a society in miniature – inside a cave. The building is full of lines of sight and keyholes that offer perspectives on the various visitors, activities and cultures in the building. Sunlight penetrates deep into the building’s interior through all sorts of openings in the roof. Low windows frame the view of the street and the sun terrace. SportPlaza Mercator is positioned at the entrance to a park in the De Baarsjes neighbourhood. The architects wanted it to fit in with its surroundings, so they added a camouflaging facade of bushy plants and flowers. “Because the building was constructed in a park we wanted to preserve as much as possible, we completely covered it in vegetation, camouflaging its diverse program,” explains VenhoevenCS. “From a distance, it seems like an overgrown fortress flanking and protecting the entryway to the nineteenth century city
“a building is not a static, isolated object, but interacts with its environment as if it is a living organism”
