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NATIONAL AVIATION LABORATORY

W. VAN TIJEN, H.A. MAASKANT, 1938-1941, A. Fokkerweg 2, Amsterdam

ARCHITECT(URAL OFFICE):
Willem van Tijen
Hugh Maaskant

BUILDING TYPE:
Office buildings

This laboratory building is used for addressing issues pertaining to aviation and aircraft construction, divided among four variously-sized departments. This flexible mode of organization is accommodated in a lucid structure, a row of regularly spaced concrete trusses. On the north side are laboratories and drawing rooms, with workshops facing south. The enormous wind tunnels have a block to themselves. The marriage of sensitively designed concrete members and brickwork typical of Van Tijen is particularly evident in the expressively shaped meeting hall cum canteen adjoining the supremely spatial entrance lobby.