Hattie Hartman visited the new Delft Municipal Offices and Train Station for Architectural Record magazine. In the article, published in March 2016, Hartman calls the structure “a surprisingly understated railway station and municipal offices in [Mecanoo’s] hometown of Delft that also helps repair a torn urban fabric. But the project’s most memorable feature, a soaring railway hall, is discreetly concealed beyond its unassuming exterior.”
The article focusses on how Mecanoo seeks inspiration in each specific context. “What commission could be more apt for designing a project that is “of its place” than a major civic building for Delft? This picturesque city of 100,000, where the 160-strong practice occupies an 18thcentury canal house, is best known as home to Johannes Vermeer and Royal Delft blue-and-white ceramics.”
Hartman in impressed by the station hall’s vaulted ceiling: “The pixelated effect is mesmerizing and creates a sense of arrival, harkening back to the grand stations of the 19th century.”
Quoting partner and project architect Francesco Veenstra, she writes: “Connectivity is what this building is all about… [It] will be a new beating heart for Delft’s municipal government and will provide offices for about a thousand civil servants and local politicians.”
Read the full article at Architectural Record