The newly completed 550-bedroom hotel for Mint Hotel Group is the latest and most prominent element of Amsterdam’s Eastern Dock Island regeneration project, sitting within Erik van Egeraat’s masterplan, adjacent to Amsterdam Centraal Train Station. The hotel occupies the sharp point of the development, with the historic canal basin directly to the south. The remainder of the Eastern Dock Island is densely developed and carefully sculpted with housing, offices, the Amsterdam City library and a music conservatoire.
Bennetts Associates’ hotel rises from eight to eleven floors and comprises of three linked blocks of bedrooms above two public floors that contain conference and dining facilities.
The composition of the building ensures that the bedrooms, terraces and the SkyLounge rooftop bar make the most of the views across the waterside and Amsterdam Old Town. The large suites, which sit in the angular corners of the building, have panoramic views across the dock whilst the central courtyard increases daylight to the internal bedrooms.
To the south and west of the hotel, the public areas spill out onto a pedestrian quayside, facing the city and acting as a “shop window” for the hotel. Road access is beside the railway embankment, contained by a continuous, elevated range of buildings on all the masterplan sites.
The hotel’s facades are a complex series of layers, consisting of moveable perforated shutters, glazing and brickwork, echoing the spirit of traditional Dutch architecture. The palette of materials in each part of the building responds to the different architectural styles around the site: the south-facing elevation incorporates the most brickwork in response to the architecture of the old town which it faces, whilst the east and west facades and bridges between the three blocks are predominantly glazed, reflecting the architectural language of the more contemporary parts of the city. All internal courtyard-facing facades are clad in red zinc, responding to the changing quality of light to this central area.
Rab Bennetts, Director of Bennetts Associates said: “It is hard to imagine a more dramatic and challenging site for a large hotel anywhere in Europe and it has been extremely satisfying to watch the project take shape within such a dynamic and forward-looking regeneration project.
We are delighted to see our third major project with Mint Hotels reach completion and it represents the latest stage in a hugely rewarding client/architect relationship. Mint Hotel’s belief in good design was fundamental to seeing this project come to fruition.”
The hotel is the third major project that Bennetts Associates has undertaken for Mint Hotel Group and follows the practice’s recent completion of a 583-bedroom hotel near the Tower of London. The firm’s first hotel, the 460-bedroom Mint Hotel (formerly City Inn) in Westminster, was completed in 2003.
