The Eindhoven Museum was created in 2012 with the merger of the Kempenland Museum and the preHistoric Village. Since then, the Kempenland Museum’s collection – around 25,000 objects – has been in storage awaiting a new home. Under the name Museum Park Vonk, the open-air museum is entering a new phase, with a new concept and a transformation of the pre-Historic Village.
Part of this transformation is the realization of a museum building, which offers space for an introductory show, an exhibition space and a workshop. In this latter space, visitors work with museum staff to build structures that depict the most important historical events of the city and region of Eindhoven. After completion, these structures will be given a place in the museum park.
Client with ambition
Client Eindhoven Museum has consciously focused on a building design that uses as many bio-based materials as possible, reuse of water and natural ventilation techniques, says Marco Vermeulen. The museum granted his studio the design assignment because of its experience with timber construction and affinity with biobased material applications, according to Vermeulen.
The use of biobased materials creates a natural connection between the new museum building and the existing historic buildings of the preHistoric Village. Materials such as wood and clay, which were used in the past, are being reused, using new techniques, among other things.
The museum wants the biobased building design to be a ‘showcase’ for sustainable and future-proof construction. It hopes to provide inspiration to the general public and other clients in particular, says Ward Rennen, director of Eindhoven Museum. In the past, people used materials from the immediate environment to build their houses, says Rennen, “With biobased we are partly going back to that tradition: a good example of how the past also contains lessons for the future.”
Building in the landscape
The preHistoric Village is located in the Genneper Parken, one of the green wedges of Eindhoven. As an agricultural cultural-historical landscape, the area offers a look back in time, according to SMV. The Genneper Hoeve, the Genneper Watermill and the Clarissen Monastery all tell part of the history of the region.
The new museum building is planned on the location where a driving school training circuit is now located. After moving this circuit to another location, the current asphalt surface can be transformed into a museum park and publicly accessible park. The landscape redesign harks back to the situation of approximately two centuries ago, so that it fits in well with the historic character of the area, the architectural firm explains.
The museum building is therefore placed perpendicular to the stream, in accordance with the original subdivision structure. Building and landscape are expressly designed in conjunction with each other and reinforce each other, SMV indicates.
Design
The museum building is part of the (new) green environment in both material use and form. Wooden columns, wooden trusses and cross-ply wooden roof panels support a roof garden. The trusses are rotated relative to each other, giving the roof surface a sculptural double curvature. This creates higher spaces in the workshop and the intro show, while in the restaurant and offices the spaces are lower and more intimate, says SMV.
The dense facade parts consist of pigmented hemp lime, which is applied in layers, as a reference to the local soil profile. At the same time, the building rises and detaches itself from the ground, says Vermeulen. “The museum building seems to have been cut and lifted from the landscape. It shows, as it were, the breeding ground on which the region has flourished.” The fact that the hemp lime is lifted above ground level at the high points reinforces this image. The green roof with native plants and shrubs is accessible to visitors and offers an attractive view.
The interior walls of the building are made of recycled CLT that the architectural firm ‘harvests’ from the so-called Biobasecamp, the pavilion that SMV designed for Dutch Design Week 2019. The Biobasecamp was designed at the time with the intention that the material can be easily reused; in Vonk it is now actually getting a new application.
Route
Museum visitors enter the building on the park side. Museum functions without a need for daylight, such as the intro show and the exhibition space, are placed in the middle of the building. As a result, all other rooms offer as much view of the surroundings as possible. The visitor route starts with the intro show, continues with the exhibition and then the workshop. The intro show, the timeline in the exhibition and the interior of the workshop were designed by Tinker Imagineers. The workshop, where visitors can collaborate on “wonderful constructions”, opens to the museum park and is connected to the restaurant
Above the kitchen is the multifunctional auditorium that can be used for conferences, business rentals and temporary mini-exhibitions. The restaurant offers access to the terrace through a series of French doors. The scenic route over the curved roof starts here. Visitors leave the museum via the shop. The restaurant, terrace and roof are freely accessible to visitors.
Climate and water
The museum building is air-conditioned as naturally as possible, says SMV. In the two highest parts of the building there are large ventilation hatches, which are open most of the year. If the outside temperature is too low or too high, the shutters are closed to provide underfloor heating and ground heat for heating or cooling the building respectively.
A helophyte filter purifies the sanitary waste water, after which it is pumped onto the roof. Here it is retained together with rainwater for as long as possible to provide the green roof with water in drier times.
Construction of the museum building and park is expected to start at the end of 2024; Museum Park Vonk is scheduled to open in the spring of 2026.
