Impressive spaciousness forms the new main entrance to Amsterdam UMC. The glass architecture draws lines on a continuous floor mosaic. The Atrium is about the beauty of life. A place where not care comes first but the experience of openness, light and greenery. A well-being before the visitor reaches their destination. The sparkle makes the grand tangible, the emptiness offers space for individual interpretation, the atrium is simultaneously inside and outside.
The Atrium is one of the key elements of the Amsterdam UMC Master Plan. The Master Plan envisages a ring-shaped extension of the hospital around a 100x100m Botanical Garden. A colonnade threads the buildings around the garden, forming the transition between inside and outside and turning the Botanical Garden into a hortus conclusus. The ring of buildings is broken up once. In this opening, the Atrium forms a space where the cosmopolitan dynamism of Zuidas and the stillness of the enclosed garden meet. The entrance to the hospital becomes a public void in which different realities find a place.
Imaging and Adore
Two Amsterdam UMC buildings flank the Atrium, Imaging and Adore. Both bring together diagnostics, research and care. Imaging combines the care of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine with research and the development and preparation of medicines. It has highly sophisticated equipment such as MRIs, CTs, PET scanners, optical equipment and cyclotrons (particle accelerators).
Adore brings oncology and neuroscience together. Amsterdam UMC believes that the best results in the fight against cancer or against neurodegenerative diseases are achieved when patient experiences and research lines are not separate worlds, but can be tested against each other again and again. This requires a physical environment that makes this possible. Within Adore, the Atrium is a key moment, where patient, doctor and researcher meet. This is where the cross-pollination takes place that allows us to look beyond the boundaries of conditions, roles and specialisms.
Tactile design
Despite its large size, the Atrium’s space is tactile and touchable. The lens-shaped roof shape translates into an irregular pattern of glass surfaces in the façade that materialises visibility.Black snap frames on the outside abstract the volume and contrast with the white window frames in the interior.Open views of the facades of adjacent buildings turn the Atrium into a covered outdoor space.The abundant light and the unobstructed view of the botanical garden behind complete the atmospheric architecture.
In the finishes, a balanced palette of materials, colours and details achieves a refined public character.
In this way, the inviting character of the Atrium is combined with sheltered and calm qualities. Hospitality and well-being take shape through an inner world of seating, greenery, art, a reading table and a terrace on the first floor. At height, a staircase to the second floor leads to an outdoor terrace with an unobstructed view of the Botanical Garden.
The Botanical Corridor
Of all the elements, the floor is the most tangible part of the Atrium. The tile mosaic is colourful and varied, a feast for the eyes. It gives a structure, hold on to it, but at the same time breaks it up. This frees up the space without letting go of the visitor.
Exactly what a pastoral environment should be.
The floor communicates with everyone, but no one sees the same thing.Abstract floral motifs demand attention and challenge recognition.The combination of mathematical and poetic properties is of all times, places and cultures.
The form it takes in the Atrium is unique and one-off. There is no room for indifference. The love and care that made the floor transfers to people. The floor is part of the botanical carpet from the Botanical Garden to the other side of Van der Boechorststraat. Conversely, the floor is an announcement that makes the Botanical Garden’s invisible presence tangible.
