A hand lifts the pre-renovation building off the site base of the 1:200 model

Station Wildeman

Project
Station Wildeman
Client & Architect
BETA office for architecture and the city
Location
Amsterdam, NL
Materials
MDF wood, Cast Acrylic, 3D print (biobased PLA)
Exhibition Model
1:200
Photography
Tim Stet

For the Amsterdamse Architectuur Prize 2025, BETA office asked us to elaborate a complete maquette that focuses on visual impairment accessibility and invites interaction with the model and its bases. By moving the pre-renovation building between the two bases, we illustrate three distinct phases of the design process: the building before 2020, BETA’s architectural interventions, and the Station Wildeman as it stands today.

  • The two grey site bases side by side, with the brown building placed on one of them 1/5
  • Close-up of the brick facade with the W relief, cast acrylic glazing and 3D-printed canopy 2/5
  • Animated view of the Station Wildeman model on its pale grey base 3/5
  • Top view of both site bases of the Station Wildeman model, with the transparent new-build volume in cast acrylic 4/5
  • 1:200 exhibition model of Station Wildeman: a long brown volume on a pale grey site base 5/5

It was important to emphasize key elements of the architectural design via textures and protrusions that invited the viewer to touch and feel the maquette. By moving the pre-renovation building between the two site models, we let the visitors interact with the exhibition and further explore how this transformation changed the architecture and its surroundings.

Animated view of the Station Wildeman model on its pale grey site plan

Maquettes are often designed to be observed, not touched, however with Wildeman we wanted the model to do the opposite and invite interaction. Time was taken to test, try and think the multiple ways of presenting and letting viewers engage with the project. The result achieved was a maquette that captures the transition between old and new, highlighting the existing architecture and the elegant, seamless additions that define the building’s transformation.

  • Work in progress: coloured material samples laid out around the brick volume with the W relief 1/6
  • Work in progress: cast ground textures and cut-out layers being fitted to the site base 2/6
  • The workshop table with cut card shapes, the W lettering and a cutting mat 3/6
  • The laser-cut MDF ground plate, layered up with the circular square cut into it 4/6
  • The finished white site base with the brown building set on it, in the workshop 5/6
  • The maquette on show at the exhibition, with the project panels behind it 6/6
1:100 presentation model in walnut of the Sluisbuurt building, on a light plywood base