The architecture office van den Oever, Zaajer & Partner, Amsterdam was commissioned by the International Bureau of Fiscal Documentation in Amsterdam (IBFD Bibliothek) to design and build a new Library and Information Center. This is how a complex of three parts united under one roof arose: for the library, documentation and a bureau for employees.
Among Dutch architects, the architectural firm van den Oewer, Zeayer & Partner is considered the "star" - perhaps because of the firm's location in a former planetarium building in the southeast of Amsterdam, where you are closer to the stars than your competitors. The office, which employs 60 people, including 15 architects, has existed since 1990. A wide variety of orders are carried out here, their spectrum extends from urban construction to interior design.
Architects strive to create modern, functional and high quality architecture, but build it at reasonable prices. In the case of MBFD, “cost accounting” is an important argument. After all, it is something like the "International Tax Institute", which studies and compares taxes and tax systems of all countries. It supplies information to both small tax bureaus and international corporations, international organizations, ministries of finance, tax authorities and universities in over 150 countries.
One of the “pillars” of the IBFD is the “Library and Information Center”. Here 30,000 books and publications, more than 1,000 magazines, collections of individual leaflets, CDs and online databases, as well as texts of laws and official documents on tax law of all countries are archived and then made available for viewing. Thousands of e-mails are sent every year, and thousands of phone calls are made. The library offers a spacious reading room and 12 workstations with computers for making payments.
No matter how “dark” the tax regulations in some countries may seem and not, the IBFD library shows transparency, demonstrating a clear rectangular division of facades and a contrast of building materials and architectural styles: the high-tech style, embodied in steel and glass, prevails on the main facade. Here, horizontals are opposed to verticals, and smooth glass surfaces - textured, made of clinker.
The façade is built on two levels: the forward-facing lamellas protect the perfect, flawlessly smooth, sparkling glass envelope. In addition, the lamellas accentuate the horizontal division of the facade. Moreover, the floor division is not clearly readable, which gives the building a large scale.
The side and rear façades are covered with massive clinker walls - because, along with steel and glass, the "star" architects decided to use such "earthy" material as brick: 250,000 pieces of clinker in a variegated, smooth and modular format were installed. There were also used 600 running meters of prefabricated window sill elements. The building is generally designed “with a view to the future”.
Information provided by the company "Kirill"
