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  • Cuyperspassage receives a special mention at the European Prize for Urban Public Space 2018

    26 06 2018
    15300044150

    Info

    We are very happy to have received this special mention for our design for the Cuyperspassage at Amsterdam Central Station. On the 20th of June architect/partner Pascal Cornips was in Barcelona to receive the award from director Mr. Vicenç Villatoro of the CBBB, (Center for Contemporary Culture Barcelona), where the award ceremony took place.

    From the jury: ‘Intensively used all hours of the day and night, and accommodating 15,000 cyclists a day, Cuyperspassage is a great improvement in the urban infrastructure. Unlike many other tunnels, installed with less attention to detail, the interior of this one demonstrates that functional clarity is not incompatible with delicate touches and symbolism. It is clean, safe, and welcoming, which are especially positive features from the gender perspective. Far from wasting money, investing public funds to make such places more people-friendly means democratizing public space.’

    The Cuyperspassage is part of our Masterplan for Amsterdam Central Station and the tile design is from Studio Irma Boom. Find out more here and here.
  • Cuyperspassage is nominated for the European Urban Public Prize 2018

    18 05 2018
    15266574810

    Info

    The Cuyperspassage, a slow traffic passage at Amsterdam Central Station, is nominated for the European Urban Public Prize 2018. Cuyperspassage is a tunnel at Amsterdam Central Station that connects the city and the waters of the IJ-river. Since the end of 2015 it has been used by large numbers of cyclists, some 15,000 daily, and pedestrians 24 hours a day. This ‘slow traffic corridor’ was exactly what many users of the city felt was lacking back then. What once was by necessity a left or right turn is now, at long last, straight ahead. The tunnel is clad on one side by nearly 80,000 Delft Blue tiles: a true Dutch spectacle at a central spot in Amsterdam. We have designed this passage together with Irma Boom Office.

    The award-giving ceremony will take place on the 20th of June at the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB). We are looking forward to it and honoured to be nominated.

    If you want to read more about this design, please click here.
  • Amsterdam Central Station - Cuyperspassage

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    Amsterdam Central Station - Cuyperspassage

    Project info

    Cuyperspassage is the name of the new tunnel at Amsterdam Central Station that connects the city and the waters of the IJ-river. Since the end of 2015 it has been used by large numbers of cyclists, some 15,000 daily, and pedestrians 24 hours a day. This ‘slow traffic corridor’ was exactly what many users of the city felt was lacking. What once was by necessity a left or right turn is now, at long last, straight ahead. The tunnel is clad on one side by nearly 80,000 Delft Blue tiles: a true Dutch spectacle at a central spot in Amsterdam.

    A clear division
    The tunnel is 110 metres long, ten metres wide and three metres high. Its design makes a clear division between the two modes of travel. By making the pedestrian level appreciably higher than the cycleway, pedestrians know where they have to be and feel safe there. Cyclists enjoy the spatial sensation of a rapid through route, accompanied by a continuous run of LED lamps along the raised edge of the footpath. The pedestrian path has a smooth finish of handmade glazed ceramic tiles. The cycleway by contrast has a rougher, open finish of black sound-absorbing asphalt and steel gratings. This is to enhance user comfort, given the tunnel’s concrete structure and great length. The gratings are impossible to litter with posters and flyers and their open structure reduces the risk of graffiti.

    Urban room
    Along the footpath wall is a tile tableau designed by Irma Boom Office. The design steps off from a restored work by the Rotterdam tile painter Cornelis Boumeester (1652-1733). His tile panel depicting the Warship Rotterdam and the Herring Fleet is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Irma Boom replaced the original crest on the stern with the Amsterdam coat of arms. The cyclist or pedestrian leaves the old historic part of Amsterdam through Cuyperspassage and heads towards ‘new Amsterdam’ in the north, or vice versa. The tableau fades away towards the IJ-river, the lines of the original work gradually dissolving. Then it builds up again in an abstract form from light to dark blue, as if encouraging cyclists to slow down as the ferry comes into view. Its drawn lines and pixels also visualize the transition in art from the old to the new. The ceramic company, Royal Tichelaar Makkum, spent five years making the 46,000 wall tiles for the tableau, as well as 33,000 floor tiles, in the traditional Dutch tile size of 13 x 13 cm. In it, we see large and small merchant vessels, herring busses with nets in place, churning waves, gulls. The whole recalls old kitchens in Amsterdam canal houses, so that the tunnel is experienced as a safe place – as an urban room.

    The Cuyperspassage is part of the overall master plan for Amsterdam Central Station - a project by Benthem Crouwel Architects, commissioned by the Municipality of Amsterdam, ProRail and Nederlandse Spoorwegen.

    CLIENT
    Municipality of Amsterdam, Dienst Infrastructuur Verkeer en Vervoer

    ARCHITECT
    Benthem Crouwel Architects

    COLLABORATION
    Irma Boom

    GROSS FLOOR AREA
    1.150 m²

    START DESIGN
    2008

    START CONSTRUCTION
    2010

    COMPLETION
    2015

    Related news
    • Dag van de architectuur; Amsterdam Centraal (11/06/2015)
    • Opening IJ passage Amsterdam Centraal (01/06/2015)
Benthem Crouwel Architects
AmsterdamDüsseldorf