Museum de Lakenhal Building, Architecture Competition Netherlands, Dutch Project, Leiden

Museum de Lakenhal, Leiden

Architecture Competition in Leiden, Holland – by Julian Harrap Architects / Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven

10 Oct 2013

Museum de Lakenhal, Netherlands

Design: Julian Harrap Architects LLP and Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven

Museum de Lakenhal Competition Winners

Julian Harrap Architects LLP have just been awarded the commission to restore and extend the historic Museum De Lakenhal, in Leiden, Netherlands in collaboration with Dutch practice Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven Architects.

They were selected from a shortlist of five other practices – with JHA being the only British practice represented.

Front Elevation of The Museum de Lakenhal:
Museum De Lakenhal Leiden Building
photo from Julian Harrap

The Museum dates from 1640 when the ‘Laecken-Halle’ building was constructed as a trade hall for the cloth industry. Subsequently the hall was extended in the 19th and 20th centuries when it was converted into the principal Museum and Art Gallery for the City of Leiden.

Block model by Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven:
Museum De Lakenhal Leiden Building
photo from Julian Harrap

The project involves the restoration and extension of the original 1640 building and reintegrating it with the other periods of the museum’s development. A new extension will also be built to the north of the site with a new frontage facing the Lammermarkt public square.

The contract value is €12 million and the work is due to be completed in April 2017 – in time to mark the 100th anniversary of the De Stijl art movement, founded in 1917 by Theo van Doesburg, a Leiden resident.

Museum De Lakenhal Leiden Building
image from Julian Harrap

“We are delighted to have won the competition and to work together with this Dutch practice. The Lakenhal building is an important building in the development of northern classicism” says Lyall Thow, Partner in charge of the project.

“Happel Cornelisse Verhoeven approached us because of our work on the Neues Museum, Berlin and because they like our collaborative approach.”

The project will follow on from the JHA’s extensive experience in the cultural sector within the UK and Europe, including the Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Victoria and Albert, the Royal Academy of Arts and the Neues Museum, Berlin.

Museum de Lakenhal in Leiden – Building Information

Museum De Lakenhal is the museum for the arts, crafts and history of the city of Leiden. Built in 1640 by Arent van ‘s-Gravesande, in the early Classical Renaissance style, the building was essentially a trade hall for the cloth industry. The ‘Laecken-Halle’ is where the famed Leiden cloth was inspected and where the Governors and Syndics of the cloth industry held their meetings. The cloth hall, likened to a 17th century city palace was once the bustling centre of Leiden’s cloth trade.

The building was subsequently extended in the late 19th century when it ceased to be the cloth trade hall and was converted to the City Museum and Art Gallery. In the 1920s the Museum nearly doubled in size when the wealthy benefactor Pape left money for a major extension. The Museum De Lakenhal features a wealth of beautiful period rooms and interior decorations.

In 2009 the Museum held an exhibition at (and in collaboration with) Tate Modern, London on Theo van Doesburg and the International Avant-Garde. The current exhibition at Museum De Lakenhal is the UTOPIA exhibition, 22 September 2013 – 05 January 2014, which is a follow up to the Tate Exhibition.

For more information on the collections see: http://www.lakenhal.nl/en/lakenhalvroeger.php

Museum De Lakenhal Leiden images / information from Julian Harrap Architects

Julian Harrap Architects

Location: Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden, province of South Holland, Netherlands

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