City Hall and Library, The Hague

[Piet Meijs]

When Rijk was partner at Richard Meier & Partners Architects (http://www.richardmeier.com) he was the project architect for the City Hall in the Hague.

Rijk always stayed in touch with the people maintaining, renovating and updating the building to help them with keeping the integrity of the design of the building while adding or changing parts of the building.

Last month we heard that there was a problem with the accessibility of the escape stair behind the Hulshoff store. Someone was able to climb into the staircase from the outside and walk al the way up.

The city came up with a solution where they would close the entire bottom part of the stair.

Luckily we were allowed to propose an alternative.

Here are a few images of what we proposed.

[P.Roegiers]

We proposed different sorts of designs for the solution of this problem.

The first option are glass panels that function like a box around the staircase so that the possibility to climb from the first to the second level is eliminated. These panels should be attached to the floors and are without mullions. This could be a problem for the attachment and the weight of the glass.

The second option are white aluminum window frames for the glass. These profiles are also used in the building and solves the problem for transferring the weight and the attachment to the floors.

The third option is the same as the second, only this one is with corner mullions.

I would like to mention that all of these options are designed on the Richard Meier grid and have a connection with the dimensions of the white panels.

[Piet Meijs]

The third framed solution was everyones favorite.

Ideally we would use steel, load bearing, frames instead of aluminum. That way we don't need a secondary support structure.

We have used a similar detail in the climate facade of the Hydron building, albeit on a much bigger scale.

We basically attached glazing profiles to full core steel beams. That way the glazing structure and load bearing structure were combined.

[Piet Meijs]

I forgot to mention that behind the wall there is a door that prevents people from walking up. That door has always been there.

The person that walked up the stair a while ago climbed from landing to landing.

To avoid that from happening again we proposed to close of the stair as shown in the images and doing so preventing from people climbing from the first landing to the next one.

[Margaret and Rijk Rietveld]

Next year Richard Meier's City hall and Library is already 15 years old. The building ages very well, and does not feel dated at all.

In the last year we have done several studies to update offices. The biggest one was to relocate the Mayor and Aldermen. After looking at a number of alternatives, a grouping over several floors around the "urban window" seemed the most promising.

[Margaret and Rijk Rietveld]

We are currently very busy again with the City Hall and Library in the Hague. The NRC newspaper (the Dutch New York Times) wants to move from the edge of Rotterdam to the center of the Hague, and there is no better place than the Central Library.

However, since the building is fully occupied, this idea has major consequences for the Library as well as the City Hall. Our task is to get to a solution where all parties involved are satisfied, and the integrity of the Richard Meier design survives.

[Margaret and Rijk Rietveld]

Last year and the beginning of this year we were asked to do research on the quote of Mayor Aartsen that: 'all aldermen should be located on one hallway'. After studying five different solutions in the building, arranging the Mayor and Alderman around the Urban Window, seemed to be the most interesting and flexible solution.

[Margaret and Rijk Rietveld]

More images of the interior.

[Margaret and Rijk Rietveld]

During the summer months we developed an altrnative for the flex-working places that the City of the Hague is using for their new building on the Leyweg. The inserting of the NRC newspaper and the subsequent displacement of library and office areas will be helped by using the condensed work concept. A great opportunity to use the new concept.

[Margaret and Rijk Rietveld]

We have always had some questions when Erik Veldhoen showed us around in Interpolis headquarters in Tilburg. Paperless and flex working go very well together. Actually they are inseparable. Still it seemed that, within an organization, certain departments are better suited for flex working than others. Erik Veldhoen did a very thorough job for Interpolis, and the party line was always that everyone, from high to low did not have their own desk.

I've seen companies change to flex working without providing the right tools to the employees. Flex working should never be about saving money. You will lose a multiple of the savings again in working inefficiencies.