Hotel, Zaanstad

The wood processing industry spawned a unique local tradition of timber architecture that is still alive today. And from the 17th century onwards, the paint mills supplied the characteristic green paints that became so indelibly associated with the Zaan region.

This 160-room hotel can be regarded as an extreme example of contextualism. It is part of a large-scale redevelopment of the centre of Zaandam, one of Zaanstad's urban cores, masterplanned by Soeters Van Eldonk.

The twelve-storey hotel, which stands in part on a viaduct, was designed by Molenaar & Van Winden / WAM as a monumental assemblage of different Zaan dwelling types, ranging from a notary's house to a labourer's cottage. The facades are in various shades of green, save for the bridal suite, which adopts the blue of the house on Hogendijk that Claude Monet painted (The Blue House, 1870). The fact that the house was blue rather than green when Monet saw it was because the paint, containing copper sulphate, had changed colour.