Previously spread out among numerous locations across Amsterdam, all 6,500 of Booking.com’s employees can now work together for the first time in more than a decade in the newly completed City Campus.
The 65,000m2 City Campus, designed by UNStudio who worked in close collaboration with the Dutch travel leader, is set to be the best possible contemporary work environment for Booking.com employees, as well as the most healthy and sustainable urban development possible. As the Lead Interior Architect, HofmanDujardin created and coordinated the interior fit out masterplan that combines the work of multiple international design firms.
Designed to connect, the City Campus is a healthy and sustainable architecture of inclusion that supports diversity and stimulates serendipitous encounters among Booking.com employees, visitors, residents and the wide array of people who live, work or visit the Oosterdokseiland in the centre of Amsterdam.
Ben van Berkel, UNStudio’s founder and principal architect, said of the design: “While the individual interior spaces enjoy a truly international flavour that reflects Booking.com’s core business, we wanted the overall concept for the building to serve as a reflection of Amsterdam – its location and the Dutch travel company’s homebase since its inception.”
Booking.com Moves into City Campus Designed by UNStudio
In 2015, Booking.com, together with BPD (Bouwfonds Property Development), approached UNStudio for the design of a new campus for Booking.com in the centre of Amsterdam. From the outset, the goal for the buildings was to create a community; to bring employees together and to attract new talent from across the world.
The architecture of the new City Campus was designed from the inside out and is based on the concept of a small town. The interior voids create public squares surrounded by a variety of amenities, cafés and restaurants, which together form the social nodes of the campus.
These interior spaces were individually conceived and designed by teams from CBRE Design, HofmanDujardin, i29, Linehouse, Mijksenaar, Studio Modijefsky and UNStudio. Vegetation design is by Moss, carpet design by Scholten & Baijings, hospitality design by Enbiun and light specials design by Studio Rublek. CBRE Netherlands is responsible for the overall project management and supervision of all other related works in close collaboration with RHDHV for core and shell.
“From the very beginning, our aim was to create an inclusive and sustainable space, where our colleagues from all over the world would feel inspired to do their best work, and all under one roof,” said Marnix Mali, Director of Real Estate and Workspace Services at Booking.com. “UNStudio completely understood our vision and played an integral role in transforming our dream for the Campus into a reality.”
The overall design of the campus reflects the functional, transparent and connected way of working at Booking.com and creates an integrated, flexible urban campus that reflects how we will work, live and connect in the future.
“We wanted to create a building that could also operate as a ‘recruitment machine’. The focus was on serving the needs and behaviour of Booking.com employees, from the moment they walk in, to the end of their working day, and all the activities in between,” concluded Ben van Berkel.
Read the full press release here.
Explore the project here.