Smart Box: exhibition space, cinema, observation tower and living room
The Smart Box has won the Smart Square design competition from the Bosch Architecture Initiative and the municipality of ’s-Hertogenbosch. The design of BK Bouwkunde students Sebastiaan Vork, Nikki de Zeeuw, and Luuk Goossen was unanimously chosen from 52 entries by the jury. The design is a flexible pavilion that can function as a new city room in ’s-Hertogenbosch.
The Smart Box is flexible, circular, and interactive. The pavilion offers space for the five educational institutions at the Onderwijsboulevard, as well as the 's-Hertogenbosch train station, the inhabitants of the city and visitors of the region. The design is made up of scaffolding elements, making the entire pavilion modular and easy to re-use. In the pavilion, local residents can host audiences or attend film screenings in the open air. The outside of the pavilion functions as a landmark. The top of the pavillion serves as a watchtower. The Smart Box itself can be used for life-size projections.
For the competition, designers were asked to design a meeting place for the square at the Onderwijsboulevard. The jury praised the design: "The Smart Box creates a special temporary meeting place in a smart way. The pavilion can represent the ambition of ’s-Hertogenbosch as Datacity in a radiant way and could be realized within the set budget ".
The makers of The Smart Box received a € 1.500,- cheque from alderman Mike van der Geld during the award ceremony. The municipality also intends to actually build the design, provided that the design can be realized within the budget of € 40.000,-. Sebastiaan Vork, Nikki de Zeeuw, and Luuk Goossen have set up the company 202122 for this purpose, a firm that focuses on architecture and design. Together with the municipality of ’s-Hertogenbosch, they are researching the possibilities for the realization of the design.