The design of this cultural center in a suburb of the city of Amersfoort, in the Netherlands, is the result of modularizing, composing, and interlocking a series of simple wooden volumes of cubic forms and varied dimensions. The geometric and the constructional modular systems correspond with one another, facilitating the use of an industrialized system whose pieces – manufactured in Germany and Switzerland – were then assembled on the site by specialists.

These pieces – whose maximum dimensions are 20 meters, 4.8 meters,and 30 centimeter for length, width, and thickness, respectively – are fabricated with counter-laminated timber, the result of superposing several layers of spruce glued together in cross form in order to obtain solid elements high in mechanical capacity and dimensional stability, with excellent acoustic properties and great resistance to attack from fungi and insects.

The limited budget led to capitalizing on all of the system’s built-in properties. Hence the panels form the structure (walls, floors, and ceilings), include thermal insulation, and show their surfaces both inside and out, except in the facade’s more exposed areas, where they have been adequately clad with natural wood subjected to a thermohardening treatment for increased durability.