• Print
• E-Mail
• Feedback

03/17/2010

At first, it may look like some sort of Lego sculpture. But in fact, this new hotel in downtown Zaandam, a city in the Netherlands, near Amsterdam, is 11 stories high and incorporates 160 rooms, a swimming pool, a Turkish bath and a restaurant and bar among other facilities. The unusual-looking project, which was designed by Wilfried van Winden of WAM architecten, is based upon the distinctive, green-hued houses of the Zaan area -- except this building stacks around 70 of them up together, from worker's cottages to accommodation for the more affluent. The blue house to the side is the bridal suite. The hotel, which opens March 18, has been criticized as "Disneyland architecture" by some, but van Winden defends it, calling the work a form of fusion architecture that blends the old and the new in innovative ways. One thing is for sure: This first project to be completed as part of the town's revitalization scheme is a guaranteed window-shopper stopper.

Check out the Picture This archive here.