Transparency makes a difference

Transparency makes a difference 

It's fun going back to a building one used to know after a refurbishment; it's even more fun to visit during the refurbishment. It used to be an odd building, a contradictory combination of generous, sunny and light communal spaces and small, dark, almost claustrophobic office wings. Now the former VROM ministry building by Jan Hoogstad at Rijnstraat 8, The Hague, is about to begin its second lease of life, as the renovation on the basis of a design by OMA (in collaboration with Hoogstad) is almost complete. When the contractor organised a visiting day, I couldn't miss the opportunity.

Quite a lot has changed (including the vertical circulation cores) but nevertheless many features of the original design remain recognisable. There's lots of glass everywhere; almost all internal partitions are now transparent, affording some daylight even in deep in the building as well as nice views of the city centre around (not that everything you see is necessarily beautiful) but these will be probably reduced once people and their stuff clutter up the building (by the way, lots of furniture is already in the building, collecting dust from the building activities - some logistic cockup?).

Strangely, the new stairs have a rather shallow tread. I wonder if it's according to building regulations and even more when architects will learn to design stairs without blindly following established nonsense like Blondel's formula and use their own eyes and feet to measure things. My 46-size shoes don't fit on these treads.

One thing I don't miss is the old radiators, which used to hang at illogical positions behind the curtain walls (even at eye height or higher); everything is now hidden in the floor or the ceiling. Thankfully, the designers appear to have added a couple of other jokes.

Leaving the building I'm struck by the questionable entrance, especially the relative position of the two sets of revolving doors. I'll have to come back once the building is in operation to see how it goes.