King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands has officially opened the Voorlinden Museum – a modern, minimalist new home for the art collection of industrialist Joop van Caldenborgh.

Situated in the southern town Wassenaar and designed by Dutch practice Kraaijvanger Architects with Arup, the museum has parallel symmetrical walls that allow the interior to open to the environment. The simple exterior includes a white colonnade to support the roof and a façade that alternates between sand-coloured stone cladding and thin glass fronts.

The building features a velum and transparent glass roof covered by 115,000 angled-cut tubes, which channel light into the building. An indirect LED light is also included, ensuring light shines on the art inside, day and night, throughout the seasons.

“Variations in the intensity and colour of daylight flowing in through the glass roof create a unique atmosphere in the museum every day,” said Arup director Andrew Sedgwick. “Given the constraints of art conservation, an external sun shading canopy based on the solar geometry of Wassenaar has been engineered to keep out direct sun whilst allowing skylight and reflected sunlight to enter. The result is a uniform but dynamic light in all the art spaces.”

The interior was designed in three parts to accommodate different programmes: collection presentations, temporary exhibitions and permanent works. It includes twenty day-lit exhibition spaces, an auditorium, a library, educational space, a restoration workshop and a museum shop.

“A visit to Voorlinden is a unique experience,” said Arup’s project director Joop Paul. “Although the whole museum is focusing on the wonderful art collection on display, a visit is so much more. Situated in beautiful natural surroundings, each visit to the museum is different because of the seasonal variations in flora and the daily variation in intensity and colour of the daylight.”