Art Hotels

It stands on the water edge where the port structures stand, and it accepts the quay line rather than turning away from it. Its height belongs to the newer river frontage rather than the old sheds, and like the cranes and warehouses it is meant to be read from the far bank.

Public floors are kept at the base, so the wedge meets the quay with an open, walkable level rather than a blank wall. The point of the plan is aimed at the water, which leaves the flat sides facing the neighbouring blocks.

Every part of the pattern is borrowed from Zaanstreek building: the green board, the white frames, the pitched gable and the window proportions. The block holds the street corner it is given, and its bulk matches the newer station buildings rather than the small houses it quotes.

The stacking is broken up so the mass reads as many small fronts instead of one, and the base is opened for entrance and public use. Its footprint keeps to the paved square, leaving the older streets a distance away.

It sits on the widened rambla the quarter opened through itself, so its free-standing form belongs to that cut rather than to the old grid. Its height stays within what the surrounding blocks reach, and the ground floor gives back to the street the way its neighbours do.

The open ground around the oval works as the join, letting the old party walls end cleanly instead of meeting a new one. A public terrace is put on the roof, and the base is kept open so the pavement carries straight past.

The building keeps the width of its plot exactly and rises flush with the street wall, as everything in the block does. Its height stops where the neighbouring eaves stop, and the ground floor holds the pavement line, so from the far side of the street the row still reads continuous.

Its narrowness does most of the work: the front is small enough that the block absorbs it between two older facades. The dark surface sits back in tone against pale stone, and the openings are kept in even rows.

The wings follow the contour of the slope rather than cutting into it, which is what the old house does as well. All three volumes keep below the tree canopy along the ridge, and the arrival front, the approach road and the outlook over the city stay where the original plan set them.

The old house keeps the centre and the arrival face, and the wings are pushed to either side and set lower, so the first thing seen from the approach is still the 1899 front. Planting on the slope closes the gap between them.

It holds the street corner squarely and keeps the pavement line, which the newer buildings around it also do. Its height sits within the range the centre now carries, its entrance faces the main street, and the ground floor is given to public use exactly as its neighbours are.

The stepping back of the upper floors leaves air between it and anything built close, so the newer frontages are met at the base rather than at full height. The corner entrance takes the pressure of the junction.