Futuristic Schnellbootbunker

Ship wharf, hotel and animal hospital. These were just a part of the ideas on the future of the giant Schnellbootbunker in IJmuiden, the Netherlands. It was the present owner of several docks, Hoorne Vastgoed, who asked students to come up with a plan for bunker.

The ship wharf with luxurious hotel idea won, of course. A company judging its own competition, picks the possibly-most-money-raising project. Because everyone always wanted to go to a luxurious hotel in IJmuiden!

According to the owner “the bunker could really bring the ‘Bilbao-effect’ to IJmuiden. That city was an industrial one in decay, but thanks to the particular Guggenheim museum it now attracts people from all over the world”.

I still don’t quite see the similarities between a museum and a hotel but well. Have fun with cutting through the concrete! The French did it before in St-Nazaire, mutulating the U-Boot bunker in the city center.

The winning design. (Illustration: Hoorne Vastgoed)