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Netherlands National Automobile Museum Opens / Michael Graves & Associates
By: admin | November - 9 - 2010
Michael Graves & Associates,
architects of more than 350 major buildings around the world, have just
finished work on The Louwman Collection, the National Automobile Museum
of the Netherlands. The project was designed by MGA Principal and
Studio Head Gary Lapera, AIA.
Speaking of the firm’s interest in museum design, Founding Principal
Michael Graves remarks, “For an architect, museums are certainly among
the most gratifying commissions one can receive—they give you a chance
to contribute to cultural history and to the public’s shared experience
of that history. We’ve been fortunate to have designed a variety of
museums over the years.” Says Gary Lapera, “In designing this particular
museum, we were greatly influenced by the character of the historical
and physical context, and endeavored to give this institution a presence
with a unique sense of place.”
The 185,000-square-foot building contains temporary and permanent
exhibition galleries, a reception hall, conference facilities, an
auditorium, food service facilities, and workshops for conservation and
repair of cars. A gift to the people of the Netherlands, the Louwman
Collection is a public showcase of selections from collector Evert
Louwman’s extraordinary vintage automobile collection. In addition, the
National Automobile Museum of the Netherlands is home to the world’s
largest collection of automotive art.
The museum’s simple design vocabulary and massing compliment its
historic surroundings: located on a sensitive site near the Queen’s
Palace in beautiful Den Haag. Steeply sloped peaked roofs and dormers,
characteristic of traditional Dutch architecture, give the building’s
exterior the visual aspect of a typical pre-modern carriage house, while
breaking down the scale of the overall composition to be sympathetic to
a nearby residential district. The brickwork of the facades, laid in a
basket-weave pattern interspersed with projecting bricks, creates
textural interest within the otherwise planar surfaces, and is
complemented by bluestone detailing and slate roofs. Inside, the Great
Hall—a large barrel-vaulted space—creates an east-west spine through the
building, separating the double-height volume of the exhibit area from
the lower-scaled U-shaped public spaces that define the entry court.
To the rear of the site, a small octagonal pavilion used as a special
gallery is located along the axis of an existing allée of trees in
Haagsche Bos park. A quiet, contemplative space well suited to its site,
the pavilion gracefully exerts a formal but tranquil presence on its
serene setting.
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