Fries Museum (Nieuw Zaailand)

The Fries Museum was built on top of an existing parking garage. Within its concrete diaphragm walls, this parking structure was completely renovated. An efficient division of the garage space was crucial to the project: it provides the foundation for the construction design of the museum itself, which is built as an addition extending upwards from the garage’s ‘skeleton’ of columns. The museum has a main hall that is accessible from two sides, in which the crowds out for a day of shopping can mingle with visitors to the museum. The hall serves as gateway to the museum, parking garage, museum café and an auditorium. Great attention was paid to allowing daylight to enter, finding the ideal design for the museum galleries and establishing the walking route. The monumental staircase and the three layers of exhibition space are visible from outside on the square. A massive awning connects the various functions, both indoors and out. The existing diaphragm walls of the garage were secured using grouted anchors that had to be strategically placed between the piles of the adjacent buildings. Between the retaining wall and the structure already in place, care was taken to protect the existing infrastructure – cables and pipes – and therefore maintain them.