Article in NRC about The Valley

The architects of MVRDV have once again delivered a new spectacle: The Valley on the Zuidas in Amsterdam.

"A small roof park on the substructure, accessible via a waterfall of steps, acts as the green of the village. The paths, lined with the same yellow-beige Spanish natural stone, lead up and down past large planters and two glass-bottomed ponds that serve as fanlights serve the lobby below.

The lobby, where a few shops and the new Sapiens Lab (a think tank about 'a better living environment') will soon be located, is also a public space. With its facades, which consist of slightly crooked shapes, the interior space, clad from top to bottom with natural stone, is reminiscent of a cave.

The beautiful stone cladding, in which numerous crystals and fossils can be seen, forms a stark contrast to the flat, dead-looking mirrored glass facades that The Valley also has. The east facade of the colossus, bordering a moat that separates the building from the football fields of AFC, is even almost completely covered with dark mirror glass, the nasty facade material that was unfortunately fashionable in office construction thirty years ago."

Read the full article here: MVRDV Designed a chilling oasis in the stone desert of the Zuidas - NRC