V&D Leiden: Crafting Layers of Time

Abstract

The topic of the graduation project is the transformation of the former V&D department store in the city of Leiden. The aim of the project is to re-design the building in order to house a series of new uses which include public facilities (such as an urban park and a public interior space), retail shops and two hotels (one student hotel and a boutique hotel). All of these functions respond to the qualities and needs of the area and the people of Leiden. The main architectural interventions that are carried out in order to make the old department store suitable for the new programme are the creation of a courtyard in the centre of the building, the design of the facades surrounding this courtyard as well as the reshaping of one of the exterior facades of the building. The new facades in the courtyard are cladded with prefabricated steel panels which are filled with bricks. This is a contemporary form of craftsmanship in brick facades, which ultimately aims to add a sustainable character to the new interventions as these panels can easily be disassembled and re-used in other projects. The new facades refer through their composition to historic buildings and facades that used to exist on the site but were demolished with the expansion of the V&D in the 1960’s. The interventions in the exterior façade also partly aim to refer to older architectural objects that used to exist before the expansion. The design principles of craftsmanship and reference which were fundamental in the original composition of Van der Laan became the main starting points for the new design through their re-interpretation and transposition in our time. For example, the principle of reference which was used by van der Laan in order to connect his building to the surrounding architecture, was used in the new design to refer to demolished historical buildings, in order to shape a historic consciousness to the people of Leiden about the transformation of the site throughout the 20th century. The principle of applying craftsmanship in brick facades, which was pursued by Van der Laan in order to make the building appealing to the upper classes of the city, was reintroduced in the new interventions but with the aim of making these sustainable, one of the most important issues that architecture faces today. Two basic principles, craftsmanship and reference, were transposed and looked upon from a different angle in the new interventions with the aim of creating an architectural outcome where old and new harmoniously co-exist as well as giving a new meaning for the whole composition relevant to our own unique time. Throughout his MSc
studies at Delft University of Technology, Pieter van der Weele was supported
by a scholarship from the Nikos & Lydia Tricha Foundation for Education and
European Culture.