ARCHITECTUURGIDS.NL / ARCHITECTUREGUIDE.NL

LIBRARY; BOTANICAL CENTRE AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY

MECANOO, 1986; 1990-1991; 1992, Dreijenlaan/Arboretumlaan, Wageningen

ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Mecanoo

PROJECT ARCHITECT:
Erick van Egeraat
Francine Houben
Chris de Weijer

BUILDING TYPE:
Libraries
Buildings for education

As the 1980s dawned the https://www.architectureguide.nl/project/item/prj_id/1010" class="inline_link">Agricultural University took over the building policy itself; the upshot was a spate of fresh, spunky architecture by young architects. The banana-shaped Botanical Centre was Mecanoo’s means of visually terminating the https://www.architectureguide.nl/project/item/prj_id/860" class="inline_link">botany complex, built in 1933 in Amsterdam School style and since then regularly extended to the point of congestion. The Centre is a box white-rendered on one side and brick-clad on the other, the two portions joined by a corridor that peeks out under a canopy to either side of the building as an emergency stair. A footbridge and a connecting passage serve to tie it to the extremities of the existing complex. Two sides of the library building up front are clad in weatherboarding held between strips of glass.