History and facts
The ink-well was built between 1918 and 1922 by architect J.W. van Heukelom. It was built as a headquarters for the Dutch Railway, which it still is. The Dutch Railway built it themselves.
Because there was a shortage of supplies in 1918, they built the pile foundations with railway bars. They where definately not short of bricks in that year because this building contains 22 million bricks (its the biggest brick building in the Netherlands). Also they used 4000 cube of wood (don't ask me where it went though). They built two brick factories, one wood factory and bought 3 ships for the building's supplies.
The UFO on the bottom of the tower was added in 2000 as a temporary project for an art festival. Nobody knows why it's still there, I think it will be gone when the aliens have achieved their plans of terror, ultimately putting Henk Westbroek up for world domination.
Multi-functionality of the building
Except for the office functions the ink-well contains a 27.000 liters water basin so it can be seen as a water tower as well. It also contains a rare bat colony so it also can be seen as a nature reservervation.
I made took some home-made pictures of it for a school project. I'm not a professional photographer and my girlfriend's photocamera was giving me the feeling of a monkey in a NASA cockpit. I Hate it when I can't capture what I see on a photo.
The whole tower is empty which gives nice light effects because of the stained-glass windows.
The whole tower is empty which gives nice light effects because of the stained-glass windows.
Tthe back side; here you can see how heavy this building is
Check these beautiful vertical lines, and the perfect shadow. This photo is pro! OMG can somebody explain why I'm so talented??Edited by ExpendableAsset
10 comments:
Nice background info on a building that has always drawn my attention. I think the UFO's still there because it's an eye-catcher.
But will it still exist in 4007?
I don't think so. The ground on which it is built must be very expensive, because it's very close the train station.
I've re-written some of the post to make it seem like wiki isn't dyslexic :)
Great post! I can see it from the new train station near my house. The UFO is a very entertaining object in the skyline of Utrecht. Great pics as well, I like the perfect shadow!
Hmmm, fascistic architecture? :)
Nice pictures!
Coincidentally I recently read a list of interesting buildings in Utrecht. I like De Apotheek (Jugendstil) at the Neude, also the unused Paushuize, Enghlenschild and Oudaen city castle.
yeah we got some nice buildings in Utrecht. for everybody who comes in Utrecht recently i advise to look up sometimes and you can see some unsuspected beauty. De Apotheek is one of my favorite buildings as well.
Indeed pimp bear don't think the ink well is a 4007 surviver.
Why wouldn't the inkwell last to 4007? I think it's one of the more likely candidates out of the list. Seeing how it's heavily overconstructed with 22 million bricks. Must be pretty strong.
:)
f = building strongness
n = number of bricks
f(n) = n / 1000000
Exactly :)
that is the higher architecture math!
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