The Arnhem Central project (by UN Studio: Ben van Berkel with Tobias Wallisser) was a large urban plan development composed of diverse elements that, amassed, constituted a vibrant transport hub. The expansion generated office space, shops, housing units, a new station hall, a railway platform and underpass, a car tunnel, bicycle storage and a large car park.
A project with such an intricate set of requirements necessitated a methodological approach that could accommodate the hybrid nature of the development. The dynamic nature of the planning process allowed the locus to fuse elements of time, occupant trajectories and program into an efficient and integral system. Housed under a continuous roof element it constituted one of the main thresholds of Arnhem, its architecture adding to the iconography of the city.
The two Park and Rijn office towers are components of the large urban plan development for Arnhem Central. Visibly recognisable on the horizon, they denote the city’s transportation hub as well as assimilating some of the public functions of the transfer hall at ground level. The two distinct volumes create a void between them, thereby avoiding the complete severance of the visual connection between north and south.
