An inspiring vision for the Metropool.
The Metropool is a national monument situated in Amsterdam, that was given a new purpose in 1960 to be a working and living environment specifically designated to offer individuals and organizations, social and professional values to facilitate their development. We AKKA, were commissioned by Breevast to create a strategic vision and a clear coherent identity for the Metropool building in order to help attract the right tenants and create a fruitful engaged ecosystem in the building. This strategic vision and identity will be the ones to inform the renovation and design activities to be undertaken as well as the tenants’ profile to inhabit the building.

While creating this vision we took an immersive dive into the context of the Metropool and its heritage. First, at a country level in international relations, the Netherlands have been forerunners since the 16th century. The Metropool continues this tradition and embraces the intellectual freedom, diversity and excellence in trade that are characteristic of the Dutch.
These are all qualities which greatly stimulate the exchange of ideas and the promotion of wealth.

Secondly, at the scale of the city itself; Amsterdam has always been a hub for culture, tolerance, collaboration, creativity, business and entrepreneurship. These are the same values needed for today’s changing lifestyles where the boundaries between work and leisure are blurring, and people are more mobile than ever. There is a new group of people emerging at the core of reshaping our future, and they uphold a social conscience, are people-focused, collaborative and are pursuing growth in an ever-changing world.

The vision developed for the Metropool aims to create an ecosystem of companies that have an aligned purpose.

Now, Metropool’s vision revolves around the notion of transforming the Metropool into a physical and mental gateway for collective, intelligence and innovation by supporting both the professional and personal lifestyles of local and international professionals, entrepreneurs, collaborators, innovators and global citizens. This will be achieved by creating a balance between private and common spaces and focusing on the following five unique qualities, that trigger interactions necessary for growth and innovation:
a. Diversity, b. Common Spaces, c. Movement, d. Encounters and e. Access

With the new vision we created for the Metropool building, Breevast was able to handpick the right companies to house in the building, the ones that will be able to not only benefit but also contribute to creating an ecosystem of collaboration, exchange and innovation.

“The new Metropool offers access to innovation”.

In addition to the newly handpicked selection of companies housed in the Metropool, the complex also houses a hotel for the international professionals. It is the ideal combination of living and working – a “home-away-from-home” and an “office-away-from-the-office”, and it redefines the inhabitants working and living relations. Therefore, core to the concept of the Metropool lies a wide spectrum of functions to be incorporated into space, in order to facilitate a context in which sleeping, living, working, laughing, thinking, and strolling around is encouraged.