nhow Amsterdam RAI

About this place

The nhow Amsterdam RAI rises 91 metres in the Zuidas district, immediately adjacent to the RAI Amsterdam Convention Centre, to which it connects via an underground concourse. OMA Partner Reinier de Graaf composed the building from three triangular floor-plate volumes stacked vertically, each rotated 60 degrees relative to the one below — a manoeuvre that generates the building's shifting silhouette and creates a series of cantilevered corners visible from a distance. The form is a deliberate homage to 'Het Signaal', a triangular advertising column that once stood on the nearby Europaplein. The exterior cladding is aluminium framing infilled with floor-to-ceiling glazing, producing a faceted surface that catches and refracts light differently throughout the day. With 650 rooms spread across nineteen hotel floors, the programme is supplemented by a restaurant, bar, television studio and conference facilities — effectively a self-contained headquarters hotel for the convention complex. The building's geometry avoids the neutrality common to corporate hotel towers; every floor plan is a triangle, shaping room layouts, corridors and views in non-orthogonal ways that confront occupants with an unusually dynamic sense of space. Its completion marked a significant addition to the evolving skyline of the Zuidas, one of Europe's most architecturally ambitious business districts.