Cultural Center Eemhuis

The Eemhuis in Amersfoort (NL) unites a number of cultural and educational institutions, including the city library, regional archives, a school of arts, and exhibition spaces. The large reading room in the library was designed as a covered piazza that extends the public space of the square into the building. On top, the Eemland Archives hover like a silver treasure box. A semi-sunken art museum with an enfilade of smaller galleries is located directly on the square. The building is topped by a dazzling crown of silver shed roofs for the art school in the attic story, where northern light falls into the studios. The façade of the roof volume is studded with 2,400 small and large aluminum hemispheres that allude to the shield of Saint George, who is depicted in Amersfoort’s coat of arms.