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CASTALIA:
THE NETHERLANDS’ MINISTRY OF HEALTH, WELFARE AND SPORT, The
Hague, Holland
The headquarters for the Netherlands’ Ministry of Health,
Welfare and Sport is one component of a redevelopment master plan
for de Resident, a mixed-use section of The Hague comprising office
buildings and housing. This project, 29,215 square meters in size,
involved re-cladding an existing 19-story jack-slab building built
in the 1950's, and providing two annexes along Zwarteweg, one
forming a gate to a new courtyard and the other completing the
street facade between this building, called “Castalia,” and
Zurich Tower, an adjacent new office tower.
The
design strategy attempts to reconcile the small scale of low-rise
housing with the larger scale of surrounding high rise office
buildings in part by making reference to traditional Dutch
architectural elements. The
articulation of the building as twin "towers" separated by
protruding glazed brick bay windows, reinforces a new vertical
reading of the building and recall Dutch roof forms and typical
window patterns.
The
new building facades accommodate the structural constraints of the
existing building and reflect typical articulation of Dutch windows
as seen in several nearby examples. The Dutch window, given almost
equal area in relation to the surface of the wall, allows glass to
read as surface with a richness of detail that is sympathetic with
the character of the traditional city.
In
addition to designing the building and its public spaces for the
project developer, MAB BV, Graves designed the Ministry’s office
interiors for the RDG (the Netherlands’ equivalent of the U.S.
General Services Administration.) The project, dedicated by the
Queen of the Netherlands in 1998, has become a landmark within The
Hague. It received a “Citation for Obvious Improvement to the
City” from the Friends of The Hague in 1998.
Site
characteristics and surroundings:
The
development called de Resident is a mixed-use development consisting
of commercial and institutional office building and housing. The
development includes new construction and, as is the case with
Castalia, renovation and recladding of existing structures.
This area is characterized by a mix of old and new buildings,
and buildings of different scales, including low-rise housing and
high-rise office towers. In addition to a master plan architect,
there are nine different architects working on aspects of de
Resident.
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Client:
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Nanno
Vaartjes
MAB
BV
Van
Stolkweg 23
Postbus
80538
2508
GM Den Haag
Holland
Tel:
011-31-70-352-4144
Fax:
011-31-70-352-3444 |
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Cost:
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$40,000,000
(estimated) |
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Size:
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29,215
square meters (approx.
96,000 square feet) (Assume USF was 66%?) |
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Services:
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Architectural
design. Associated architect in Holland was Grabowsky &
Poort, BV |
|
Arch.
Services Schedule:
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October
1993 – June 1998 |
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Status:
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Completed
October 1998 |
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Awards:
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Friends
of The Hague: Citation
for Obvious
Improvement
to the City, 1998
FIABCI
– The International Real Estate Federation:
Prix
d’Excellence awarded to development, De
Resident,
in Special Projects category, 2003 |
Bron en copyright: Michael Graves & Associates |
