anne holtrop plans national museum for the new dutch waterline

studio anne holtrop has completed the design for a national museum on the ‘new dutch waterline’. the site was a military defense system constructed in the 19th century to protect the netherlands by flooding large parts of the country to make it inaccessible. currently the 85 km long area with numerous fortresses is listed to get the UNESCO world heritage status. situated on the site of fortress vechten, the development proposes to make an underground building which takes the mold of the existing topography as the basis of the architectural form.

all images © studio anne holtrop

two patios will make the museum visible from the landscape, which will contain an enormous model of the entire waterline with its rivers, lakes, dikes and rocks. visitors will be able to walk through the reproduction and re-enact the flooding of the land by opening the locks and filling the basins of the replica. the project will be constructed on site in a dark brown concrete and is expected to complete construction this year and open during the spring of 2014.

patio spaces

detail model of museum

carved formations of the landscape within the structure

aerial of interior spaces

facade detail

interior detail

existing site

site plan

landscape with mold

roof plan

sections

plan

project info:

project: national museum for the new dutch waterline
year: 2011 – 2014
architect: studio anne holtrop
team: arjen aarnoudse, stijn de weerd, gabriel cuéllar, sebastian hürni, akira negishi & shumpei nitatori
area: 2,000 sqm
client: province utrecht
masterplan: rapp & rapp architects and west 8 landscape architects