Carnival Corporation & PLC Group, the world’s largest company in cruise and leisure vacations, commissioned the design of a new international training campus. In the middle of Almere’s ‘DUIN’ landscape area, a plan was developed for the Arison Maritime Center, a ‘State of the Art’ campus consisting of a training building and a hotel. This center is the largest maritime training facility in the world and features the most technologically advanced real-size bridge and engine room simulators. These can simulate almost all conditions at sea.

Over 6,500 nautical and technical officers from all over the world meet and train here every year. They stay for several weeks in the hotel specially designed for them.

This hotel, which Christian worked on as project architect for Paul de Ruiter Architects, is a 4-star CSMART Hotel, with underground parking. It is connected to the Academy and consists of 14 floors, with the first floor housing the reception, a large restaurant and a gym. The hotel floors above have 176 spacious hotel rooms with fantastic views over the IJmeer on the one hand and Almere on the other. All facilities are housed close together in this building, providing extra comfort and tranquility after an intensive training day.

Plenty of fresh air, a stable indoor climate, use of responsible materials, perfect acoustics and good daylighting ensure an optimal learning atmosphere. The buildings have a clear structure and a soothing appearance to promote user-friendliness as much as possible. There is also a strong focus on the synergetic connection between the ecological quality of the campus and the dune landscape. In addition to highly economical energy consumption, the Campus meets high environmental and sustainability standards and is thus rated with a LEED ‘Gold’ certification!

Client: Carnival Corporation & PLC Group

Architect: Paul de Ruiter Architects

Project architect: Paul de Ruiter & Christian Quesada van Beresteyn

Completion: July 2016

Images: Paul de Ruiter Architects

Photography: Christian Quesada van Beresteyn