Pien Niehe
Europe Press Office,Amsterdam
The newly renovated and extended museum 'the Mauritshuis' is to be reopened on 27 June by King Willem-Alexander.
The Mauritshuis is a 17th century city palace in The Hague, exhibiting the very best Dutch paintings of the Golden Age, like 'The Girl with the Pearl Earring' by Johannes Vermeer. The museum needed a large renovation and an extension, which houses a new exhibition space, an auditorium and room for educational purposes.
Arup's nearly invisible building services design made it possible to maintain the monumental nature of the building, while keeping the central focus on the art collection.
"In order to make the building services invisible, we mapped all possibilities in detail. Even behind the fabric of the wall covering we discovered a space befitting a temperature and humidity sensor. These type of findings were all assimilated into the design. In the Netherlands it is extremely rare for a tender phase to work out the building services concept on this level of detail. "
Bart Kramer-Segers, Project Manager, Arup
The refurbishment and extension, a design by Hans van Heeswijk Architects, includes an underground foyer. This connects the city palace to the adjacent building of 'Sociëteit de Witte', which was completely stripped and redeveloped as exhibition space.
Our Dutch office has also been involved in the extension and renovation of the Stedelijk Museum and the Rijksmuseum. In the Netherlands we are currently working on the new Museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar and the extension and renovation of Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden.