The spectacular design for a flower-shaped, sculptural building is the new landmark for the City of Venlo. Behind its show-stopping good looks, it embodies two major design principles: sustainability, and optimizing the user experience. From a distance, this unique building is highly visible, appearing as a kind of welcoming gateway to the Netherlands. The colour-changing interactive façade provides a breath-taking light show during the darker hours, while emphasizing the casino’s flower-shaped structure.
A generous, Vegas-style porte-cochère leads guests into the centre of the building, where they find themselves in the heart of the giant flower. The interior, with its inviting bar and gaming spaces, revolves around the curving wooden ‘stem’ in the casino’s core. This sculptural structure evokes the proud Dutch shipbuilding tradition.
The total concept is based on biomimicry. The building is a self-regulating organism with a skin, skeleton, metabolism and brain. The Trias Energetica method determines its energy management, (EPC 0.34, equivalent to Breeam Outstanding). This is the best-ever energy performance for this type of building.
