Houtlab is part of a huge Dutch construction group called JAJO. Houtlab is not a construction company. Houtlab is a construction lab. A place where the smartest and most entrepreneurial people within the group converge and accelerate ideas, concepts and transitions. Experts, talents, students, creatives. Across companies, expert fields. Continuously building a better future.
Telling and challenging
The Houtlab DNA is built around a design framework of four pillars: modular, experimental, constructive and transparent. In a culture where design and story drive the business and challenging, sharing and helping out push sustainability to new heights, it’s not only the outcome that is important. Also the why, what, who and the process matter.
The building is the story
The new headquarters is a metaphor for everything that goes on at Houtlab. The materials, the structure, the building solutions, everything tells a story. That’s why we — in collaboration with Leidmotiv — decided to use the building as an integral part of storytelling. Throughout the building you’ll find little black signs telling a story. And on each floor there are orange steel frames with an orange mesh with signs and a screen introducing the why, the who, the what, the process and the outcome. The whole system is modular and can be updated with the newest and latest developments. And all floors are color coded, making the story easy to navigate through the stories and building. A 360 story from the ground floor up.
Walk the walk
To the Houtlab visitors it’s important that we not only walk the walk, but also talk the talk. From everything that goes on on the floors and what’s created in the workshop. With the spatial design and the story touch points throughout the building, you’ll find the Houtlab DNA everywhere you look. It’s told by the Houtlab people and it’s told by the Houtlab building itself.