Internationally acclaimed for its work in graphic and motion design, Dutch studio thonik has turned its hand to architecture in the form of a new multipurpose building in Amsterdam. Designed by thonik’s co-founder Thomas Widdershoven in collaboration with Arjan van Ruyven of MMX Architects, the studio’s first foray into three-dimensional design is a striking building home to a sake bar, a Japanese restaurant, thonik’s offices and an event space open to Amsterdam’s creative community.

Echoing the striking striped facade, the interior has many graphic-led features including a staircase with a bold pink pattern, a series of bespoke rugs designed by thonik and a beautiful tapestry/acoustic wall created by Dutch designer Simone Post.

“Designing and building your own workspace is still an experimental alternative in the current economic reality,” explains Thomas Widdershoven. “For thonik it meant operating within a tangle of rules and constraints and having to soften up institutions and experts to get the right support. And it required a completely different attention span to a communications campaign. In fact, the process, from start to finish, took 12 long years.”

“We couldn’t have done it without Arjan van Ruyven of MMX Architects, who proved to be an ideal sparring partner,” continues Widdershoven. “We put so much care and attention into the design,” says Nikki Gonnissen, thonik’s co-founder, who was in charge of the interiors alongside Widdershoven. “A building is not like a poster, it has a much longer lifespan.”

Celebrating thonik’s graphic roots, the lines on the facade refer to Mexcellent, a typeface designed for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico. The combination of horizontals, verticals and diagonals attests to radical simplicity. The graphic cladding consists of 10 mm panels of Trespa® Meteon® Lumen mounted directly on to the insulation material.

“This sheeting consists of impregnated paper produced by a company in Weert in the southeast of the Netherlands – so it’s truly Dutch manufacturing,” says Widdershoven. “Trespa® is undervalued as a construction material yet it outperforms traditional brick. It is light, fully recyclable and has an undeniable graphic quality.”

The mixed-use development is home to thonik’s new office space arranged over two floors alongside a sake bar on the ground floor leading to a Japanese Omakase restaurant on the first floor. An event space dubbed ‘the thonik loft’ is located on the top floor and a rooftop terrace, open to the public, offers 360-degree views over Amsterdam’s inner city and the financial district.

The large windows make Studio thonik stand out from its neighbours, welcoming curious pedestrians inside. An external staircase, balconies and corner windows project onto the street, connecting the interior and exterior. Studio thonik is an all-electric and zero-emission building – its floor-to-ceiling windows are triple-glazed and layered with a special UV coating while the indoor temperature is regulated with an air source heat pump. The space also features additional solar and wind energy, high-quality insulation and smart ventilation.

[Images courtesy of Thonik. Photography ©️ Ossip.]