AdapLab

This is a proposal commissioned by SKOR for a hospital in Haarlem/The Netherlands. The building was constructed in the 70ies by the architect H. Hallink, a Le Corbusier student. The general impression is that of a “health-producing machine”. We were asked to “beautify” the inner area, a roof where all the outlets of air conditioning and cooling devices, dish and cloth washers etc. come together. But instead of hiding it in some way or another we decided to make use of it. We designed an inflatable ETFE-foil construction which refers to the utopian architecture of the 70ies and the belief in technical progress. The basic concept is to turn around the idea of a green house, where a lot of energy is needed to create the right climate for exotic plants. Here, the different outlets provide hot air, both humid and dry, which inflates the foil construction and we have to choose the suitable plants. Tropical, as well as desert vegetation, can be grown in different parts of the adaptation laboratory.