The Voorlinden Museum designed by Kraaijvanger Architects opened recently in the Netherlands. The building has a deep relationship with its natural surroundings, and is designed to contain owner Joop van Caldenborgh’s collection of contemporary art.
The natural landscape and its relationship with the garden are the keys to understanding the new project by Kraaijvanger Architects in the Netherlands, the Museum Voorlinden, which opened recently in Wassenaar. The museum contains the private contemporary art collection of Joop van Caldenborgh, one of the most important private collections in the Netherlands, including such famous works as Richard Serra’s "Open Ended".
The museum designed by the architects of Kraaijvanger consists of six walls parallel to the landscape with floor-to-ceiling windows that bring the landscape into the building and vice versa. A series of slender white metal columns supports the roof, which is designed to suit the light conditions at the site, ensuring perfect natural lighting which varies over the course of the day and with the seasons.
In addition to the exhibition halls, the museum contains an auditorium, a press room, a restoration workshop, a museum shop and a library of about 40,000 volumes on the artists whose works appear in the collection. The interior with its dramatic staircase was designed by Italian architect Andrea Milani of Studio Milani. The garden, designed by landscape architect Piet Oudolf, blooms with annuals in spring and summer, picking up on the tradition of the classical garden, while in autumn the landscape will be reshaped and the annuals replaced with perennial plants.
(Agnese Bifulco)
Architects: Kraaijvanger Architects
Light Design: ARUP
Location: Wassenaar, The Netherlands
Images courtesy of Museum Voorlinden, photos by Pietro Savorelli, Antoine van Kaam
www.voorlinden.nl
www.kraaijvanger.nl
www.arup.com
www.studiomilani.eu
