Netherlands Dance Theater

 

location : Den Haag

function : dance theater

 

The Netherlands Dance Theatre, completed in 1987, was originally conceived in 1980 as an extension to a circus theatre in Scheveningen, the seaside of The Hague. In 1984, the design was adapted to a new site - the Spui Complex - in the centre. At that time this new context was undergoing substantial change. Now the Dance Theatre shares the Spui Complex with a concert hall (van Mourik, architect), the town hall (white building by Richard Meier) and a hotel designed by Carel Weeber (also the planner of the complex). What would have been a flamboyant exterior reflecting the holiday vernacular of Scheveningen, became, in the city centre, a humble building (with the exception of the billboard/mural), which almost disappears between its extroverted neighbors. Although there was minimal collaboration between OMA and the architects of the concert hall, the buildings’ physical proximity generated a shared foyer - a 7 m wide alley between the two buildings.