The Dutch government's warning that dance parties might compromise the structural integrity of OMA's Rijnstraat 8 building has been dismissed as "an abundance of caution" by the architecture studio.
According to OMA the reported problems at Rijnstraat 8 in The Hague, which was refurbished by the studio in 2017, are due to "planning and cost-saving, not of architecture".
The Rem Koolhaas-led practice defended its work following a memo sent to government employees working in the building warning them not to hold parties, stack paper or place a second row of chairs around meeting room tables.
Restrictions a precaution says government
A spokesperson for the Rijksvastoedbedrijf (the Central Government Real Estate Agency) told Dezeen that the memo was sent as a precaution. Rijnstraat 8 is having it's BubbleDeck slab flooring surveyed after a carpark under construction at Eindhoven airport that used the same prefabricated system collapsed in 2017. All buildings in the Netherlands with this flooring design are being examined in this way.
Employees at Rijnstraat 8 have complained about a lack of privacy and "depressing" interiors
Up to 6,000 civil servants have to share only 3,000 desks now that three government departments share space in Rijnstraat 8  in what OMA called a "hardcore cost-saving move".
"We have this issue because of neoliberal economic policies in which cost savings are prioritised above all else," contin...