Hilversum – green interior of the media

Patrycja Haupt

doi:10.5277/arc120213

Abstract

At present Hilversum is mainly known as the Dutch capital of the radio and TV industry. It became the location of seats, studios and archives of several stations, national and commercial ones, what is worth emphasising, in a way that does not interfere with the identity of the town and its special villa character. It was made possible due to situating the buildings connected with radio and TV technology in a park area in the northern part of the city. The buildings erected with respecting the existing townscape were blended in with natural topography and flora of the terrain. Thanks to the size limitations and the respect towards the environment so characteristic of Dutch architecture as well as the use of sustainable solutions in designing, even the large-sized structures were successfully given the character referring to the 19th-century city tissue.     Buildings situated in the area of the Media Park as a comprehensive complex have become a part of the panorama of city which surrounds it. Nevertheless, each of them retains its own unique character which is visible in the structural shape, façade design as well as the way of interacting with the surroundings. Each building constitutes an individual response of a designer to the problem of combining features characteristic of the media stylistics of the pop culture era in one structure with simultaneous attention to harmony with surroundings that is typical of contemporary trends of sustainable designing. Architecture created in accordance with such assumptions is an attempt to form a spatial sign – icon for a company represented in this way with simultaneous blending with the terrain, thus co-creating the townscape of contemporary Hilversum. Relations with the surroundings are explicitly visible in each of the park buildings; nonetheless, it is interpreted in a specific manner characteristic of a given structure and its designer. The relation architecture–nature is realised through blending the building in with the terrain topography, using the roof panels as a continuation of the public space, transparency and permeating with the surroundings as well as introducing elements of nature into interiors – internal gardens.