The cepezed-designed Jinso-pavilion on the Arena Boulevard in Amsterdam has won the Dutch National Steel Prize 2010 in the commercial and industrial buildings category. The prize was presented during National Steel Day October 14. With the Jinso-pavilion, cepezed has won its sixth National Steel Prize. The office also won two Belgian and two European Steel Prizes.

According to a statement from the jury, chaired by architect Hans van Heeswijk, they valued the way the pavilion blends in with its large-scale and crowd-intensive surroundings.

“Until now, the idea to solve the roof stability three-dimensionally with a compound ring beam was only known of stadiums. Such an employment on this small scale is cunning and sophisticated … The execution is handsome, with cold-bent glass and slender steel profiles; the constructive versatility of steel has ingeniously been used. The details have been designed with great care. In the aggressive surroundings of the soccer stadium, cinema multiplex, music hall and bill boards, this structure easily stands its ground … Creations like these make a complete area more attractive and more refined for the general public.”

The 2008-built Jinso-pavilion is an extension to an Asian catering pavilion also designed by cepezed in the 1990s. Due to the scale enlargement of the entire area during the last decade, the Municipality of Amsterdam requested that the owner and operator invest in an expansion.

The original building consists of an elongated, two-story box measuring 20 by eight metres. In the initial designs, the extension involved a skin of ETFE cushions that constituted a roofed-over winter garden that stretched over the pavilion. The concept eventually evolved into a transparent glass oval, more than 12 metres high and measuring 43 by 30 metres in length and width.

The façade consists of cold-bent insulating glass, which was bent and placed on the site itself. On the ground floor, the façade can be opened more than three quarters of its length through the use of a facetted folding wall in which every separate part has a different radius. The façade accommodates three stability crosses, of which two are situated at the heads of the oval.