MVRDV transformed the centerpiece of the city's museum of modern art - the classicist church - into its main entrance area, wrapping the interior with horizontals of bright red shelves. This new shell contains many of the functions a museum needs: an administration desk, a cloakroom, a shop, a café, a variety of spaces to display art and items for sale.
The building of the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam itself, built as a shelter for the elderly in 1787 by architect Jan Giudici, has a clear symmetrical structure with a U-shaped plan, the two wings of which are united by a small church with a pediment and massive columns: it is in this church and the main entrance to the museum is now located.
The bright red color draws a clear line between old and new: modern functions fill a discreet historical interior, changing the quality of the space, but at the same time paying tribute to its sacred purpose. Here the new does not come into contact with the old physically: there is always a gap between the elements of different eras, a space that mediates between centuries. Windows, openings, pulpit, columns are framed with a red outline, bounding a new wall, emphasizing the difference between the verified contours of the shelves and the historical lines of glazing, balustrades, and architrave fascia.
The new shell is a lightweight removable structure, which allows the architectural monument to be preserved intact: with any transformation of this "insert" or with its complete removal, the historical interior will not suffer. The shelves made of fiberboard, as they approach the ceiling, due to their inaccessibility, change their function, acquiring the role of acoustic panels. Some places are accented by LEDs mounted in the horizontal surface of the shelves. Rear wall perforation avoids potential problems in high humidity conditions.
Rows of shelves, combining many functions, distribute them around the perimeter of the room, so that the central space remains as open as possible and very variable: it can be adapted for seminars and conferences, as well as for concerts or celebrations. The museum ceases to be something separate from everyday life, on the contrary, it becomes a part of it: life penetrates into classicist architecture.
Thus, in the historic center of a typical Dutch town with canals, churches and windmills, the museum of modern art has an entrance area corresponding to its spirit and meeting the needs. They say that theater begins with a coat rack, but isn't that also true for a museum?
