National Holocaust Museum to be ‘Best Building of the Year’ declared

The National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam was named the BNA Best Building of the Year on Thursday evening, the annual prize of the Branch Association Dutch Architectenbureau (BNA) that has now been awarded for the twentieth time. The design is from Office Winhov, which has worked on it for six years.

The museum is located in a former breeding school on the Plantage Middenlaan, from which around 600 children were brought to safety under the eyes of the occupier during the war. In the meantime, their parents were in the Hollandse Schouwburg across the street, from where they were deported to concentration camps. The theater, the breeding school and a former home of a Jewish couple next to the school now together form the NHM that opened last year. With that the museum not only tells the story, it is also the story.

The museum has already received more prizes, but head curator Annemiek Gringgold was visibly moved. « It has become a safe place to tell a super -secure story, » she said. The jury praises the way in which the architect tells « the tough story in daylight and from the everyday experience ».

It is that lightness – literally the daylight, but also the light colors and materials – that it does it in this museum about such a dark chapter in history. Architect and client have worked very closely to achieve this exemplary result in which the building and exhibition merge seamlessly.

The public prize went to the office full of waste, a former Rijksantoor at the former airport of Valkenburg. Bureau Popma Ter Steege has renovated it with existing and recycled materials. That approach is now ten percent more expensive than standard renovation, but according to the jury that will change as raw materials will become scarce. The incentive prize, which will be presented for the first time this year, went to a project by Groothuijse de Boer in Hattem, where vacant stores have made way for homes.

Shifts

This is the twentieth time that the BNA prize for the best building of the year is awarded. Saskia van Stein, in daily life, has compiled an exhibition about the winners in those two decades, director of the international architecture Biennale Biennale, under the title Form Forward In the new institute in Rotterdam. It offers a cross -section of the architecture in that period, and of the shifts that took place there.

On a long strip of bright yellow cable duct, the models and photos are chronologically postponed. Striking is the number of cultural buildings that were the ‘best’ of their year: the depot of Boijmans van Beuningen of MVRDV, for example, the forum in Groningen of NL Architects and the renovation of the Singer Laren Museum by Bedaux de Brouwer.

The emphasis at the start of this era was on ‘iconic’ Bravoure buildings, now more importance is attached to sustainability

The Dutch tradition of well-designed infrastructure is also represented here, with Rotterdam CS and the North-South line in Amsterdam. A striking trend is the architect who himself tries to get a better grip on the entire construction process. In 2023, for example, the prize went to the Bunker Tower in Eindhoven of the versatile Bureau Powerhouse, which not only does architecture, but also acts as a developer and now also has its own contracting and even a publishing house.

The emphasis at the start of this era was on ‘iconic’ Bravoure buildings and strong control by the government, now it is striking that there is much more importance to sustainability, to the local, and a construction culture that works with the landscape, residents and the environment. « This exhibition shows that architecture can be the driving force behind social changes, » says Saskia van Stein. « These designs come from the past, but in fact we look ahead. »

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