Centraal Beheer (Bear-heer)

I have presented my project, toured the building, taken several pictures, and am now ready to write my research paper. The building I have been studying is Centraal Beheer in Apledorn, Netherlands. Centraal Beheer is a very well known issurance company here in the Netherlands and in the mid-70’s asked unknown arhictect Hermann Hertzburger to design an office building for 1,000 employees. During this time, it was Hertzburgers belief that people spend more time in the office than at home and therefor an office building should feel more like a home. His main ideas about the buildings were that there would be no hierarchy, meaning every office space would be the same for interns all the way up to CEOs. He also wanted the space to be very open so that one could easily get up and roam to get coffee or talk to another employee or just relax, this also made it easy to sneak out of work without the boss seeing you.

Hertzburger compared this building a city. He gave it many different exits/entrances, put several public spaces in it for the users, created a grid system and took away the hierarchy. It is an amazing building with great concepts. I loved touring it and couldn’t believe how successful it was. All the images I found of the building, as well as plans and sections, never really helped me understand the building. It is a crazy building with crazy concepts and a crazy design, but once you enter the space and look around, everything makes sense. Though it would take a new employee a few weeks to learn their way around the office. Once really cool concept is pictured below. As you can see their is only one escalator going from floor to floor, so during the morning rush hour they run the escalators moving upward. They then turn them on moving downwards in the afternoon rush hour. In the hours in between they are shut off and used as normal stairs, this way the building saves energy and we all know what that means for the environment. Of course the building does have an elevator and alternative stairs.

I guess that is it for now, hopefully I get internet soon! Later all!