Highnote

Residents and visitors enter the enclosed but accessible complex through the creative makers’ courtyard (The Werf), the green courtyard and the stepped roof garden. An open cultural space is situated between these areas at the base of the tower, hosting a cafe, restaurant and more.
Due to their varying size and form, all the urban rooms, both indoor and outdoor, are designed to be used flexibly. They’re places to perhaps work, study, relax; places that invite people to use them in their own ways.
The many urban rooms facilitate a diverse and dynamic use of space that fulfils current and future needs, where both the building and neighbourhood gain a new urban hub that complements what’s happening in the city centre.

With its stepped silhouette and distinctive colour, Highnote appears as a striking landmark in Almere’s skyline. Four volumes are stacked above the triangular base. The building fronts all sides, with a warm red monochrome facade that both gives prominence to the varying rhythms of the volumes and softens its rectilinear grid. Every volume has its own facade rhythm, enhancing the building’s stacked configuration. Composed of angled concrete piers, the prefabricated facade features deep window niches which create a play of light and shadow that defines the building’s distinct architecture.

At street level the facade extends down into the colonnade that wraps around the entire triangular site. With an open framework, this continuous horizontal band connects the indoor and outdoor urban rooms. Open sections feature a visible interplay of art and green space and are recognisable as inviting social spaces where curious locals and the young residents of Highnote can mingle.