Student Housing, Utrecht University | Architectenbureau Marlies Rohmer

The new student housing building in the De Uithof part of Utrecht University, designed by Architectenbureau Marlies Rohmer, is something new- finally, a building without windows! Oh no, this is not what you think.

photography by © Scagliola en Brakkee

The building’s got plenty of windows, spread out amongst the 380 independent and clustered student residences and common rooms. What it doesn’t have, is a facade that must give way its purity to allow windows.

photography by © Scagliola en Brakkee

It’s not facade and windows, the two are one and it’s not a glass curtain wall. Fenestration disappears into the complex and erratic, multicoloured jumble grid of aluminum panels, creating a facade which appears a blended grey from a distance and slowly resolves to bright and vibrant the closer one gets.

Courtesy of Architectenbureau Marlies Rohmer- Photography by Scagliola en Brakkee, Rene de Wit, AkzoNobel