den Haag - city centre
Now there is a danger of highlighting a particular area of a city, as by highlighting something you isolate a whole heap of other things.
Though for any architect visiting den Haag (The Hague), it is impressive to see four projects done by the big boys standing side by side forming a very coherent city centre. The red on the image above shows the footprint given over to Richard Meier, Michael Graves and OMA/Rem Koolhaas. OMA has completed two projects, the collaged Soutterrain Tram Tunnel moving up past the Grotemarkt and the Lucent Dance Theater which was one of Koolhaas’ earliest projects completed in 1987.
Standing proudly on the corner is Meier’s pure white Stadhuis van Den Haag, finished in 1995. This is offset by the largest of the four, Grave’s Castalia. This houses the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sports completed in 1999. A beautiful postmodern testament to traditional Dutch architecture.
