The Hague gets new (interim) Binnenhof

The “Binnenhof”, the historic Dutch parliament complex in The Hague, will be rebuilt and renovated for six years. During this time, the lower house of parliament, the House of Representatives, will move into a temporary seat. This task was prepared by the Utrecht office of Zecc Architecten.

The former headquarters of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is located at Bezuidenhoutseweg 67, just a few minutes’ walk from The Hague’s Binnenhof. The brutalist building with exposed concrete elements was designed by Dutch architect Dick Aponin in the 1980s. Zecc Architecten are now renovating the Binnenhaus in The Hague and adding a new reception hall.

The primary balancing act was to strike a balance between accessibility and the necessary security of the building. For the many thousands of public visitors who will enter the building over the years, the architects created a second entrance without further ado. On the one hand, this helps to better direct the flow of visitors. On the other hand, it enlivens a previously rather gloomy and deserted part of the building.

A reception building with a canopy was added to the exterior of the existing building to form the new main entrance. The jagged shape of the canopy picks up on the design language of the existing building, whose externally visible floor slabs nestle around the supporting columns in a similarly striking way. The structural elements of the canopy are largely 3D-printed. They are made of recycled plastic, while the underside of the roof is made of basket weave.

Zecc Architecten had elements from The Hague’s Binnenhof recreated or reused. Employees and visitors immediately find a familiar environment. One example of this is the escalators. They lead from the entrance hall up to the plenary hall, the former and now converted Van Kleffens Hall. As Bart Kellerhuis, one of the architects responsible for the project, points out, the new route from the entrance door to the plenary hall has exactly the same sequence as the one in the old building.

The recycling continues into the plenary hall. The walls and fabrics are kept in the familiar colors, while the furniture made of orange and light brown pear wood has been completely fitted from the old hall into the new one. Unplastered concrete columns in the interior provide a reference to Dick Apon’s original architectural style. Zecc Architecten certainly hope that MPs and visitors will feel at home in the interim building: “Our aim was to design the interim quarters in such a way that users would be reluctant to leave after five and a half years,” says Kellerhuis.

Temporary relocation? The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra recently moved into the so-called “Isarphilharmonie” in Sendling. It will remain there until the “Gasteig” concert hall is finished with its renovations.