Mixed-Use Block with Starter Homes, Shops and Restaurants Frames New Plaza
The Angle forms the final phase of OMA’s masterplan for the new city centre of Almere. The masterplan delivers shops, 1,000 homes, 2,000 parking spaces, a museum, a library and a theatre across 12 new urban blocks, with individual blocks designed by an exceptional roster of architects including Rem Koolhaas, Kazuyo Sejima, Gigon & Guyer, MVRDV, UN Studio, SeARCH, Christian de Portzamparc, William Alsop and David Chipperfield.
A central idea of the masterplan is to intensify the city centre by orchestrating its different “urban flows” - the slow movement of pedestrians and the fast movement of cars. Rather than treating these as separate layers in plan, OMA designed them in section, as a stack of interconnected spaces. Shops, public buildings and pedestrian streets sit above an “underworld” of car parking and bus routes, so that moving between levels, or between modes of movement, feels effortless and seamless.
The Angle defines the north-west edge of the masterplan, where the new plan meets the existing city. The brief was to design a building that could mediate between new and existing urban fabric and organise the movement of cars and pedestrians across multiple levels of shopping and parking.
The building’s angular form turns away from the ring road, shielding the new plaza - with its shop fronts and cafés - from traffic noise. Around the plaza, secluded private balconies face the sun; facing the ring road, a glazed acoustic screen protects the main circulation galleries and outdoor terraces.
A single, continuous skin of glass and aluminium panels wraps the building, giving it a clear, unified identity. Subtle variations in the panels, in transparency, opacity and colour, respond to local conditions, so the elevations differ where they need to while the building still reads as one piece.
- The Angle
- NL, Almere
- Client
- Almere Hart CV\
Bouwfonds MAB\
Euro Woningen - Programme
- 5400 m2 residential space\
3900 m2 amenities and retail space\
Site area: 0.3 ha\
Workspace: Building Commision\
Status: Delivered\
Building costs: EUR 9,400,000
Mixed-Use Block with Starter Homes, Shops and Restaurants Frames New Plaza
