Gebouw X is the latest arrival on the campus of Windesheim University in Zwolle. Broekbakema was selected as the architect to design it after a European call for tenders in 2005. The assignment and the final result illustrate how in the course of time the firm has acquired expertise and knowledge in the field of the often complex commissions in the educational sector. The selection of Gebouw X as BNA Building of the Year 2011 confirms that it is not just an unimaginative sum of parts. The way in which function, quality, architectural impact and ease of use have been combined in a single design incontrovertibly illustrates the added value of the design and the process. The award is thus a confirmation for the firm of the correctness of the new direction that it took a few years ago. The architecture of Gebouw X makes a clean break with the rest of the buildings on the campus at the moment but is at the same time a foretaste of the changes that are planned in the future. The building has a powerful, unambiguous and clear design with a modern impact and displays a high quality in the choice of details and materials.

Gebouw X is the latest arrival on the campus of Windesheim University in Zwolle. Broekbakema was selected as the architect to design it after a European call for tenders in 2005. The assignment and the final result illustrate how in the course of time the firm has acquired expertise and knowledge in the field of the often complex commissions in the educational sector. The selection of Gebouw X as BNA Building of the Year 2011 confirms that it is not just an unimaginative sum of parts. The way in which function, quality, architectural impact and ease of use have been combined in a single design incontrovertibly illustrates the added value of the design and the process. The award is thus a confirmation for the firm of the correctness of the new direction that it took a few years ago. The architecture of Gebouw X makes a clean break with the rest of the buildings on the campus at the moment but is at the same time a foretaste of the changes that are planned in the future. The building has a powerful, unambiguous and clear design with a modern impact and displays a high quality in the choice of details and materials.

This publication is intended to give added lustre to the final result that has been achieved and to the cooperation between the architect and the principal. Besides a textual and visual presentation of the building, it also devotes attention to the process that went into its making. The genesis, background and considerations that were weighed up in that process are discussed in two interviews. The interview with Aldo Vos and Siebold Nijenhuis (Broekbakema) and the interview with Dirk Pieter Halbesma (Windesheim) and Peter Ruchti (draaijer+partners) throw light on how that cooperation proceeded, on the ambitions on which the building is based, and on the different aspects that have stuck in the memory of the parties involved.