Location: Assen, Netherlands.

Architect: Erick van Egeraat.

The Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands has been extended with a new main exhibition hall and entrance designed by Erick van Egeraat. The design integrates the museum into the city’s fabric with a balanced play of building, landscape and water. The new exhibition wing is underground and has a staggered, organic roof that consists of a public garden connecting existing city parks. The existing coach-house will serve as the museum’s new main entrance, with its historic facade left untouched but lifted onto a glass plinth that allows light to enter during the day and highlights it at night. The design won an international competition in 2007.

Photo credit: J Collingridge.