National Military Museum

Project Details

Project Description

Projects
On The Boards
Two Museums Join Forces In Soesterberg.

Touring military museums in the Netherlands is about to become much easier, thanks to the new National Military Museum in Soesterberg, which will combine collections from the Army Museum in Delft with those of the Military Aviation Museum in Soesterberg into a single 20,000-square-meter (215,000-square-foot) building on the grounds of a former air base. A competition for the commission was won by a team consisting of Claus & Kaan Architects (architecture), Heijmans (construction), and H+N+S (landscape architects), with Kossmann.dejong designing the exhibition spaces. Having written a book on the subject of designing exhibitions—2010’s Engaging Spaces—Amsterdam-based Kossmann.dejong divided the museum into two conceptual areas, one encircling the other. The first is a daylight-filled display of military equipment, such as tanks on the ground, and airplanes suspended in a permanent dogfight. The second, an enclosed, light-controlled environment, offers insight into military history through themed galleries with mixed media such as models, artifacts, animations, and dynamic lighting. The museum anticipates an opening in September of 2014.