Thonik Studio designed by Thomas Widdershoven (thonik) in collaboration with Arjan van Ruyven (MMX architecten) was awarded Best Iconic Building 2020 by the Dutch Architecture Association (BNA). 

In the ‘Architecture in the Netherlands, Yearbook 2020-2021’ our studio was one of the featured 23 projects. We got permission to quote the text:

“For one of the last vacant pieces of land on the Wibautstraat, the City of Amsterdam responded positively to Thonik’s proposal to allow end users from the creative sector to develop their own workplace here, arguing that this would contribute to a more small-scale and varied use of space in the city. Together with MMX-architecten, Thonik designed and developed a striking building with a black-and-white striped facade. The design concept is clear and simple: uniform windows and uniform facade panels repeated horizontally and vertically in a grid. The resulting taut orthogonal image is slashed by an external staircase that runs diagonally across and around the building, ending in a balcony at the top floor. The cladding of Trespa strips gives the the building a fresh, graphical look.

The top floor houses thonik’s design studio and an events space. On the lowest floors of the building, a 23-year-old sushi-maker, famous for preparing sushi in his student bedsit, now runs his own Omakase restaurant with a team of equally young twenty-year-olds.

The interior design, featuring furniture by different Dutch designers, is a  ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’, a collective work of art. The warm materialization of the interior contrasts with the austere architeture. It is a dramatic building, whose added value lies in the cross- fertilization of ideas between architect, a graphic design office and interior designers.”

Thank you Teun van den Ende, Kirsten Hannema and Arna Mačkić for including us in your selection and for your inspiring words. The yearbook is published by Nai010 and can be ordered here.