US Embassy in The Hague gets a new use as a museum of modern art

This final-year project to redesignate the former American Embassy in The Hague began with a cultural-philosophical and theoretical study. This was prompted by the changed climate in which the building has found itself since the events of September 11th, 2001. Proceeding from the building itself, the study goes on to look at how prevailing public issues find their way into creative circles. From this it transpires that architects need to rethink how they give concrete form to their sense of commitment. After the period of the early Moderns with their unfettered, ambitious future ideals it is time for the designer to adopt a more autonomous role. Influenced by Alan Weisman's book 'The World Without Us', the design brief is approached through a material, small-scale thinking. This book evokes images of emptiness and silence in a deserted, abandoned city.

This line of enquiry led to a design concept for Bauhaus architect Marcel Breuer's former embassy building in The Hague. The threat of terrorist attacks means that the present premises will soon be abandoned for new ones. This project gives a new use to this building in the very heart of The Hague city centre. The public, kept out of it for so long, takes on a role analogous to that of the new intruder Weisman describes in his book. Combined with the images of silence, emptiness and space, the brief became that for a museum of modern art. This new duty transcends the embassy's current status, imbued as it is with associations with terrorism and international politics.

Out of the research by design came a concept that retains some frontage from the existing building and where the new form literally forces its way in. An interconnected ensemble of square exhibition spaces has been created 'under Breuer's skin'. The concept was worked up in an intensive dialogue with the structural and engineering issues raised by the design. Thanks to a pioneering use of EPS foam in a composite structure with glass-fibre reinforced polyester, the design can be realized in a pure form. The space between old and new is to be a solid residual form in EPS foam. This lightweight material can be placed inside the existing structure of the building without the need to adapt the foundations or make major structural changes. The composite construction keeps both new implementation and old facades in place, as well as insulating the building as a whole.

Under Breuer's Skin returns to The Hague a building with a mysterious heart. If Breuer's embassy seems uncompromised at first, an entirely new structure with its own ambience unfolds on entering the building. Emptiness, space and light occupy a place once awash with international tensions.

Place of education: TU Eindhoven | Specialization: architecture | Tutors: Gijs Wallis de Vries, Maarten Willems, Jacob Voorthuis