The Stedelijk Museum reopens its doors.
01/10/2012.
By Benthem Crouwel. [AMSTERDAM] The Netherlands.
metalocus, VÍCTOR LÓPEZ-REY, TERESA DEL PRADO.
metalocus, VÍCTOR LÓPEZ-REY, TERESA DEL PRADO.
After closing at the end of 2003 the famous building designed by A.W. Weissman for renovation and extension work, on 23 September, the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art opened its doors as one of the most important artistic centers of the city of Amsterdam.
Stedelijk Museum facade as seen from the Van Gogh Museum. Photo © John Lewis Marshall.
Stedelijk Museum view of the original building (A.W. Weissman, 1895) and new building designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects. Photo © John Lewis Marshall.
Stedelijk Museum facade as seen from the Museumplein (Museum Plaza). Photo © Ernst van Deursen.
Overview of the Museumplein. Counterclock-wise from top Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum, Stedelijk Museum, Concertgebouw. Photo © KLM Carto.
Stedelijk Museum new entrance hall. Photo © John Lewis Marshall.
Stedelijk Museum escalator entrance. Photo © John Lewis Marshall.
Stedelijk Museum original building interior. Photo © John Lewis Marshall.
Stedelijk Museum new entrance hall. Photo © John Lewis Marshall.
Stedelijk Museum new entrance hall. Photo © John Lewis Marshall.
Lower-level gallery (1100 square meters) in new building designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects. Photo © John Lewis Marshall.
Karel Appel, Mural (1956), in the former restaurant space, Stedelijk Museum. Photo © John Lewis Marshall.
Section. The new Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam by Benthem Crouwel Architects. Image Benthem Crouwel Architects.
Although it is unmistakably different in appearance from the Museum’s original structure, the new building of the Stedelijk designed by Benthem Crouwel matches the scale and cornice line of the 1895 building and is connected to it directly, so that the two are fully integrated without either one’s being compromised.
According to Mels Crouwel, “The Stedelijk Museum of Willem Sandberg, the director who put the Museum on the international map, was our starting point. He stripped the interior of decoration and had it painted white, creating a neutral background for art. Our plan for the exterior is based on retaining the 19th-century architecture, adding 21st-century technology and painting everything in Sandberg white.”
The new building appears from the outside to be an entirely smooth white volume, oblong in shape and canted upward at one end, which is supported on white columns. Already known by many in Amsterdam by the nickname of “the bathtub,” this floating form, which spreads outward at the top into a broad, flat roof, is actually the envelope for the second-floor galleries and auditorium and the offices above. It is entirely encased in glass at the transparent ground-floor level, which houses the main entrance and lobby, bookstore and restaurant.
PROJECT CREDITS
Architect: Benthem Crouwel Architekten.
Gross floor area: 12000 m².
Dates: Start design: 2004. Start construction: 2007. Completion: 2012.
Client: City of Amsterdam.
Location: Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
