May 7, 2016

Citizens’ fingerprints adorn windows of new Deventer city hall

Filed under: Architecture by Branko Collin @ 6:06 pm

stadhuis-deventer-portraitTwo weeks ago the city of Deventer officially got a new city hall.

One of its prominent features is an artwork by Loes ten Anscher called Raamwerk Deventer which consists of the blown-up metal fingerprints of 2,264 citizens that cover windows both on outside and inside walls.

An early design for a new city hall had a number of difficulties to overcome. It was protested ten years ago for being obtrusive and the brouhaha even brought down two successive city governments. The architects of that design, Neutelings Riedijk from Rotterdam, were asked to return to their drawing boards, which they did. They came up with something better, something that impressed NRC.next: “Design driven by political noise usually ends up being a tepid compromise or an outright failure […]. But the City Hall Quarters, as the collection of old and new buildings is called, has become an exemplary complex in both an architectural and an urban design sense. The city hall is an example of how well a new building can function in an old city centre.”

Loes ten Anscher hopes that by using their fingerprints, the citizens will come to feel that the new building also belongs to them.

A more cynical person, like me, might see the usage of thousands of fingerprints more like a celebration of the utter disdain with which Dutch governments sometimes treat their citizens’ right to privacy. But hey, it looks really pretty, right?

(Photo: Deventer Stadhuiskwartier)

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June 14, 2009

Royal palace Amsterdam reopens after extensive renovations

Filed under: Architecture,History by Branko Collin @ 8:05 am

As of today, the Royal Palace in Amsterdam will be open to the public again. The former 17th century city hall had been closed for renovations for three years.

Although the general public can visit the building—it used to draw 100,000 visitors a year—it is also still in use as one of the Queen’s palaces. Although she doesn’t live there, she does use the palace for formal receptions. Telegraaf reports (Dutch) that several suites for guests have been added. The renovators have tried to restore the palace to the Empire style—originally introduced by King Louis Bonaparte (the brother of)—meaning lots of light colours and gilded furniture.

Several modern conveniences have also been added, such as lifts, ground floor toilets, and air conditioning. The total cost of the renovation ran up to 80 million euro. The Rijksgebouwendienst (state building service) is now preparing for a controversial clean-up of the outside of the building—something that hasn’t happened since the palace was built 350 years ago, according to Parool (Dutch).

(Photo: Bureau Monumenten & Archeologie.)

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