BRICK FLOATING IN MID-AIR

摘要

LAM (Lisser Art Museum) is situated in Keukenhof, a large park surrounding an old castle. The part nearest the castle has been designated as a culture park since 2010, and this is where LAM is located. Another part of the park is home to the world's biggest flower garden with seven million bulbs. The site dates back to the mid-17th century, when the large comb-shaped hillock was built as a viewing platform. In the mid-19th century, the formal park garden was transformed into a romantic one with winding paths and less formally planted trees. These towering old trees now form the atmospheric setting for the museum. From a distance, the building seems to float above the ground, but on closer inspection the entrance leads directly into the hillock. The building may have a limited footprint, but it stretches all the way up to the treetops and all the way back over the grass mound in the horizontal museum wing. Two parallel volumes are built into and on top of the small hill with a narrow passageway between them. The simple, cubic geometry of the architecture is broken up by asymmetrically placed windows. The cognoscenti will perhaps recognise the golden section that forms the basis for the proportions of the windows. Solid natural stone walls support the opening in the hillock and lead visitors into the museum through a curtain wall of glass and between the high pillars on which the exhibition halls rest. The concrete pillars are covered with bark to blend in visually with the trees.