Kraaijvanger Architects designed Museum Voorlinden in close collaboration with the client Joop van Caldenborgh. The result is a building that solely exists to serves the art it displays. Six sand dune colored walls rise up from the landscape, thin glass fronts open up the interior to the surrounding parkland. While an elegant white colonnade bears the ingenious roof structure. The modern building, with its symmetrical design and generous dimensions, echoes those of classical buildings. The interior is divided in three parts: collection presentations, temporary exhibitions and permanent works. The interior consists of twenty daylight halls, an auditorium, library, print room, educational space, restoration workshop and a museum shop.
Dutch Light
The typical Dutch Light near the North Sea has been a source of inspiration for generations of artists. Architect Dirk Jan Postel proposed a concept, executed by engineering consultancy Arup, for an innovative daylight design for Museum for Linden. Natural light flows into the building thru 115,000 angled cut tubes covering the entire roof. A sun velum and a transparent glass roof, assisted by indirectly led light, makes for an almost magical light shining on the art; day and at night, in every season. The daily variations in light intensity and color make each visit to the museum unique. Arups light team in Amsterdam made the (day)light design in close cooperation with Arups Global Arts & Culture leader Andrew Sedgwick in London. Besides daylight design Arup was responsible for the system design, fire safety, building physics, acoustics and development of the completely invisible utilities, fittings, fixtures and - most notably - escape route signing, a feature that was highly desired by the architect and the client. Hidden behind a thin layer of plaster the signs are only visible when lit up in case of emergency.
Flexible layout
None of the interior walls are loadbearing and can be moved where needed, without modification to the support structure. The columns in the glass front carry most of weight of the roof. Maximum slenderness of the façade columns was desired by both the client and the architect. The chosen columns are so slim that standard calculations for structures and capacity where not applicable. Pieters Construction designed a support structure which was then tested by the TU Delft. Steel columns are wedged into the basement and foundation and give stability to the building that would otherwise come from facades, walls and roof. Which then could be as transparent as possible.
View Original