In 2009, with offices located in the surroundings of Amsterdam, Red Bull Amsterdam wanted to move to a more urban location that would reflect its culture and involvement in the arts and sports. The Austrian company goes much further than simply selling its famous energy drink. Since its beginnings, it has been involved in racing sports (Formula 1, NASCAR, motorcycle racing) and has been massively sponsoring extreme sports. The company has also invested a great deal in music, helping young artists or creating travelling workshops. Our main goal was to create an architecture that would reflect this rebel culture.

We focused on expressing the dichotomy of space, shifting from public to private spaces, from black to white. Our idea was to combine the brutal simplicity of an industrial place with Red Bull’s invitation to perform. The interior architecture with multiple layers of meaning conveys this dual personality, reminding the user of mountain cliffs one moment and skateboard ramps the next. These triangle-shaped piles build up semi-open spaces that can be viewed as niches or as bridges and mezzanines across space. With graphic designers, we chose to express Red Bull's philosophy of extreme sport through a ubiquitous graphic covering of vertical and horizontal surfaces: ceilings, walls, floors, furniture.

The new Red Bull Headquarters gave extreme satisfaction to Red Bull employees and management. The work surpassed expectations from 2 standpoints. First, the total costs of the project were lower than expected. Second, Sid Lee Architecture managed to mould a creation that was fully on par with the company’s identity and values. As of today, there are no quantitative results for the project. However, in the future, a key success indicator will be the space’s ability to become a cultural hub in Amsterdam for expositions, gatherings, seminars and events from all creative backgrounds.