June 2010 • Observed
From the Rooftops
Pitched-roof houses have an eternal appeal. Children draw them, and architects, it seems, like to stack them. Herzog & de Meuron’s retail building in Weil am Rhein, Germany (see page 28), opened just weeks before this oddly similar Inntel hotel in Zaandam, the Netherlands. To reinforce the notion of the hotel as a temporary home, WAM Architecten piled up what appear to be 70 of the region’s traditional wooden residences. Now that’s going to be tricky for Dutch kids to master.
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