Thursday 30th of october 2008 Mark de Kruik of Amsterdam Topstad opened thee first accommodation for CASE, Center of Amsterdam School of Entrepreneurship. Here students of the Hogeschool van Amsterdam get the opportunity to start their own business during the last six months of their study . This is a new initiative of the HvA to encourage more students to entrepreneurship.

The CASE office space is located in the Duintjerbuilding, the former ABN bank in the Vijzelstraat in Amsterdam. People working in the creative industry can rent temporary office spaces in this building untill it will be transformed into apartements within a few years .

CASE made a deliberate choise for a location outside their school environment to introduce students to real businesslife. This center consists of two lecture rooms, a room for teachers and open workspaces for the students.

The position of the prominent building in the Vijzelstraat and the temporary character of the interior defined the scope of the design. In spite of the short building periode (the project has been designed and build within no more than three months) and the tight budget the result doesn't look like a temporary accommodation. The space evokes an ambience of coherence and refinement.

By partly taking out the existing ceiling, using translucent polycarbonate panels as walls and glossy colours on the floors we tried to break radically with the former dusty office atmosphere. The budget dictated the use of cheap materials, as the polycarbonate panels, and the re-use of existing materials. For example, the counter is made of glass elements of the former office partitions. Colour gradations of purple, red en red-purple and simple grafic interventions produce a contrast between this interior and the historical background of the surroundings.

This project has been designed in collaboration with Oliver Ebben.
Photo's by Mark Weemen