Casino, Leeuwarden

Holland Casino nurtures the ambition to become a leading company in a European context. To help realize this aim of capturing a better position in the market, Holland Casino requires a powerful building with allure. In the course of time, the typology of the casino has altered from that of the house (casina = small house) to palace to box. The casino is no longer exclusively for the beau monde, the rich and famous, but has also become accessible to the general public. The casino is increasingly a part of an enjoyable evening out. A casino is more than a building, it is a world of experience, it is 50% organization and 50% suggestion, a scenario in which various paradoxes must be reconciled.

The starting point for the design was an iconographic, inviting building that fits effortlessly into the series of exceptional buildings in Leeuwarden such as the Friesche Bank and Bonnema’s Achmea Tower. The typology of the gaming room is the basis of the building’s appearance.

The building is characterized by two conjoined truncated pyramids, each of which accommodates a gaming hall. They are embedded in the urban structure by means of their publicly accessible and appealing plinth.

The overlapping area of the main volumes produces the natural formation of a conspicuously inviting entrance that displays a spatial relationship with the gaming rooms, the multifunctional areas, and the offices. On entering the building, one clearly becomes a part of the experiential world of the casino. Vertical access takes place by means of an X-shaped placement of the lifts that connect the entrance to the gaming floor, the Sky Bar, and the Cigar Club. The Sky Bar and the Cigar Club are situated on the top floor and give a marvellous view out across the city.

The gaming halls are visually linked but can be used separately from one another. Each has its own intimate atmosphere, with gaming tables on the gaming floor and one-armed bandits on the circular balconies. The allure of the dome-like space with frescos on the ceiling and screen-printed glass breast walls is baroque and burlesque, a place to escape from the trials of everyday reality.