Marianne Loof column
Last week, it was announced that Chief Government Architect Frits van Dongen was stepping down ‘in close consultation with Minister Blok’, so that he would have more time for his own architectural practice. The obvious reason is his collaboration with a participating consortium in the dbm contract for The Hague’s Spuikwartier. This location has all the elements for a gripping drama with the title ‘The Spuikwartier, a battlefield in three acts.’
The drama starts in the architectonic spring of 1984, when Koolhaas’s first building design materialises in the form of the Danstheater. Van Dongen, as an architect with Van Mourik, designed the Philipszaal. In the nineties, the town hall, designed by the first ‘starchitect’ Richard Meier, led to the resignation of councillors Duivesteijn and Van Otterloo.
Violent vicissitudes
Act two starts in 2011 with the proposed demolition of the Philipszaal and the Danstheater. At the same time, the design for the new cultural hub by architectural consultancy Neutelings Riedijk is presented. However, the economic downturn, objections by activist groups, political unease and a new executive board caused violent vicissitudes. The plan produced by Neutelings Riedijk disappeared into the shredder and seven consortiums were invited to develop a vision for “a cohesive development for the Spuikwartier”. For a moment, it appeared calm, but then there was another unexpected turn. Act two ends with the sudden departure of the Chief Government Architect to avoid a conflict of interest.
Government estate agent
Act three takes place in 2015, against the backdrop of one consortium’s winning dbm bid. The new Chief Government Architect arrives on the scene and via a gripping monologue, delivers a retrospective of the government’s changing role from 1980 to 2015, as well as the consequential changes to his own remit. After the Government Buildings Agency’s name change to the Central Government Real Estate Agency, as of now, he is simply a government real estate agent.
Cobouw.nl