The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was designed in the late nineteenth century by Dutch architect Pieter Cuypers. The function of the building was twofold: one part was the national museum, the other the gateway to the south of Amsterdam.
The museum use has paid an overly high price for its urban role as a connecting element between what was then the existing city –to the North– and the newer developments towards the South. A walkway - virtually a street - runs through the building from North to South splitting it in two parts, necessitating two entrances –both towards the North– and two main staircases; this means that only on the first floor are the Eastern and Western parts of the building are joined, while the ground floor and basement are divided.
The need for exhibition space has meant building within the courtyards which led to a lack of natural light. This also brought to a kind of labyrinth in which the visitor is given no information concerning their whereabouts.
The intervention on the building was, initially, meant to open up a new and unique entrance to the museum admission in the central passage hall, and secondly, to recover the courtyards and exhibition spaces, regaining somewhat their original state, or at least their dimensions.
The large space generated by opening and connecting courtyards houses all essential uses for visitors, and offers a suitable space on the scale that the grandeur of the building deserves. You enter this hall from the passageway, and the tours to the exhibition areas start at this point, linking with the original grand stairs.
In the new space created, natural limestone has been used. The courtyards are connected under the passage. On each of them a structure with an acoustic and lighting mission has been suspended: ‘the chandeliers’.
Client:
Programmadirectie Het Nieuwe Rijksmuseum
Address:
Museumstraat, 1. 1071 Amsterdam, Netherlands
Typology:
Museums & Galleries, Transformation
Status:
Built
Competition:
2001
Design of project:
2001 - 2013
Construction:
2007 - 2013
Implementation:
2013
Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos
Collaborators:Alicia López, Ana Vila, Carlos Arévalo, Clara Hernández, Iko Mennenga, Jan Kolle, Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea, José Luís Mayén, Juan Carlos Mulero, Luis Gutiérrez, Marije Ter Steege, Marta Pelegrín, Mercedes Pérez, Miguel Velasco, Muriel Huisman, Óscar García de la Cámara, Rocío Peinado, Rosa Melero, Sara Gutiérrez, Thomas Offermans, Tirma Reventós, Víctor Breña, Victoria Bernícola
Arquitecto local:ADP architecten, Cruz y Ortiz arquitectos
Landscape:Copijn
Restauración:Van Hoogevest Architecten
Infography:Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos, Indigo
Model:Jacinto Gómez
Photography:Arie de Leeuw, Duccio Malagamba, Eran Oppenheimer, Erik Smits, Ewout Huibers, Iwan Baan, Jannes Linders, John Lewis Marshall, Jose Manuel Ballester, Luuk Kramer, Pedro Pegenaute
Structural engineering:Arcadis
Climate engineering:DGMR, OVE Arup
Survey:Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos
Contractors:BAM Utiliteitsbouw Regio Amsterdam BV, Homij, Hömy, JP van Eesteren, Koninklijke Woudenberg, Kuipers, Moehringen, Unica
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