The new natural history museum and marine aquarium on the Dutch Wadden island of Terschelling is a building shaped by the relationship between space and time. I began my project by seeking out the identity of Terschelling and examining the role fulfilled by today's museum institute. I have chosen to site my building on a high dune between the old village centre and the Noordvaarder nature reserve. It is a place whose strategic position in the Wadden Sea area has been the scene of many conflicts. Here lie the remains of a large complex of German bunkers. The two largest bunkers I have commandeered for water storage. As one is ten metres taller than the other, by linking them I have created a natural seawater course. The 100-metre-long corridor between the bunkers constitutes the actual steel and glass marine aquarium, as the spine of the entire plan. The constant reflections of water and light in this corridor make the aquarium seem infinitely large. The museological and public spaces are interwoven around it. From these spaces the public are able to observe the fish in a multitude of ways.

The scale of the public areas and those for education and entertainment matches the scale of the buildings in the village. The public areas are oversailed in their entirety by the building's timber structure. This means that they are freely subdivisible and can be used during the winter months for the island population's own activities. The public areas themselves are also rendered in natural, perishable materials so that nature can take over once these spaces are no longer needed.

All the museological rooms by contrast are in bare concrete. Each room features one of the seven unique landscape types on the island. These sculptural and almost amorphous spaces open up to the landscape in question, framing the view in the process and giving each room its own identity. A walk through the building approaches the sensation of walking through these seven landscape types. Like the bunkers used to store water, the museological spaces are in effect themselves bunkers. They too can later become part of nature, though retaining the memory of nature as it is today.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Daan Vitner, Huib Plomp, Birgit Hansen