A new clubhouse for Amsterdamsche Football Club

Professional clubhouse for best amateur soccer club in the Netherlands

To guarantee the high level of the best amateur soccer club in the Netherlands, the new building is equipped with all conveniences. For example, the first floor includes spacious dressing rooms with shower and massage rooms and professional sports facilities such as a physiotherapy practice and a gym.

The second floor is publicly accessible. Here you will find the club restaurant with generous outdoor terraces and sweeping views of the soccer fields and surrounding area. The restaurant features a professional kitchen and an impressive bar with the club's trophies and relics on the back wall. The bar and public area flow seamlessly into the clubhouse, which can easily be closed off for private occasions such as meetings by moving a sliding wall.

A players' tunnel was constructed for the first team's attendance, providing direct access from the clubhouse to the main field. The spacious grandstand seats about 600 spectators and is partially covered by a canopy that protects against any rain. From here you have a spectacular view of the field.

Future-proof design

AFC's nearly 60-year-old clubhouse was in dire need of replacement. AFC took this opportunity to make the new clubhouse a future-proof building. Paul de Ruiter Architects was commissioned to design a sustainable, energy-efficient clubhouse that offers room for growth and development while preserving the club's culture.

Central to the design was circularity and reduction of CO2 emissions. The construction of the floor, including the canopies, is made of laminated wooden trusses of domestic larch and fitted with floor-to-ceiling windows. This transparent design creates an inviting appearance and offers a magnificent view of the sports fields and the Zuidas. It also gives natural light free rein to penetrate deep into the building. The wooden, sleek canopies then shield the building from warming from the sun. These simple but clever solutions reduce the use of artificial lighting and cooling, resulting in significant energy savings.

With all the locker and shower rooms, the clubhouse consists of proportionately many tiles. In terms of circular material, there were gains to be made here. Therefore, the most sustainable cradle-to-cradle tiles were used throughout the building.

The roof of the clubhouse is filled with solar panels that provide energy for the clubhouse. For heating, a connection to district heating was chosen that is fed by residual heat.

Goed Genoeg

Along with the clubhouse, the sports fields of the municipal sports park Goed Genoeg have also been renovated. The seven soccer fields have been exchanged for five artificial turf fields. To ensure that play could continue, as usual, the fields were built one at a time. Because the Zuidas is growing as a lively Amsterdam city district where people can live, work, recreate, and play sports, the municipal soccer fields can also be used by clubs and schools in the area.