The Van Gogh Museum >New Entrance Building by Hans van Heeswijk

The new Entrance Building of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

The new entrance building of the Van Gogh Museum opened on September 5, 2015, in Amsterdam. Along with accommodating the new entrance lobby, the addition connects the original building of the museum, designed by Gerrit Rietveld in 1973, with the more recent Kurokawa Wing, completed in 1999 as a temporary exhibition space.
Coherently with the development strategy of the two major museums nearby, the Stedelijk Museum and the Rijksmuseum, which in the last 10 years have been substantially updated and enlarged, the Van Gogh Museum also renovated and, by the completion of the new entrance wing, forms one of the most interesting cultural centers in Europe.

For the new entrance building, Dutch design practice Hans van Heeswijk Architecten developed the preliminary drawings prepared by Kisho Kurokawa Architect & Associates after the Japanese architect passed away in 2007. The new expansion has been designed following the preexisting elliptic building conceived by Kurokawa in 1999 and represents its natural completion.

Entrance Building Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam
Above left: the Kurokawa wing before the construction of the new Entrance Building.
Above right: rendering image of the new Entrance Building. Courtesy of Hans van Heeswijk Architecten.

Entrance Building Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam
Above: cross-section. Courtesy of Hans van Heeswijk Architecten

The new wing, totally transparent, is enclosed by a 650 sqm. (7,000 square-foot) curved facade, 12 meters (39 feet) high, made of cold-bent laminated glass panels and covered by a semicircular glass slab.
The extremely lightweight appearance of the building is due to its peculiar constructive system. Indeed, the facade-roof system not only constitutes the transparent envelope of the entrance wing but also functions as a part of its load-bearing structure. The curved glass panels collaborate with the vertical glass fins, set perpendicular to them and acting like thin buttresses, that in turn work together with the steel frame structure of the building.

Above and cover image: Entrance Building Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam.
Photo: Jan Kees Steenman, courtesy of Van Gogh Museum.

By a large stairway, also made of glass, or a panoramic elevator, the visitors reach an underground lobby – 16 feet below the street level – that accommodates the museum’s reception areas and visitor service facilities, including a cloakroom and new museum store.
The lobby gives access to the two main gallery wings of the Van Gogh Museum.

Above: Entrance Building Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam.
Photo: Jan Kees Steenman, courtesy of Van Gogh Museum.

Entrance Building Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam

Architects: Hans van Heeswijk Architects
Location: Museumplein 6, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Area: 15175.0 sqm
Architect Exhibition Wing: Kisho Kurokawa
Design concept New Entrance Building: Kisho Kurokawa Architect & Associates
Building: Hans van Heeswijk Architects

Van Gogh Museum:https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en
Hans van Heeswijk Architecten: www.heeswijk.nl/