The lobby of the Volks Hotel in Amsterdam embodies architectural multi-tasking on steroids and while humans don’t multi-task well, it seems that spaces are able to do so.
The Volks Hotel is pretty much a standard hotel upstairs—well, as standard as you can be with rooftop hot tubs and sauna with a view of the city—but its lobby is a café, a co-working space (complete with foosball table, least you be confused), and, on the right day of the week a place to get a haircut and a massage or attend an office retreat.
The décor is genteel industrial and the co-working spaces are indeed generally packed with people endeavoring to work hard. They can do so at small two-or-so person tables, tall or short, at large 8-or-so person tables or in conference rooms with doors that close and walls that reach to the ceiling. Since in part of the lobby work spaces are two levels high, people in the conference rooms on the upper level or working nearby have a view out over the entire space from a space that seems protected and secure—biophilic design and prospect and refuge at their best. So is the use of plants and natural materials and daylight.
Some spots for working are table free. Especially appealing is a retreat with a O-shaped ring of bench seating tucked out of the way. It was in use most of the time during a recent hotel stay, which was not surprising. Its colors, furniture style, detailing, and ambiance evoke a comfortable, residential den.
Design contributes to the multi-tasking success of the Volks’ lobby – workers are generally segregated, at least to some extent, from others—but the work areas are also successful because Dutch culture tends to be more restrained and considerate of others, generally, than Americans are. Place, function, and culture recognize and respect each other in this special space.