Alexander Beeloo

HOLLANDS LICHT: DUTCH LIGHT - DUTCH LANDSCAPE
Artists' colony in the Nieuwkoopse Plassen

Hollands Licht (Dutch Light — Dutch Landscape) is an artists’ colony consisting of four buildings in the landscape of the Nieuwkoopse Plassen nature reserve. The architecture frames the landscape, accentuates the qualities of this landscape and steers the gaze of the artist. The architectural space serves as a link between the artist and landscape. The project is an ode to the Dutch landscape where I grew up. It is inspired by paintings of The Hague School, whose painters explored the nature of the Nieuwkoopse Plassen in an attempt to capture the light in the extraordinarily beautiful landscape.

Hollands Licht is about the experience of the landscape, the characteristic Dutch landscape with the rapidly shifting cloudy skies, the endless horizon in the flat landscape, the abundant water that reflects the light and the moist atmosphere that scatters the light diffusely.

The artists’ colony in the Nieuwkoopse Plassen consists of a landscape ensemble of four buildings where artists can work and reside in total concentration for a season. Here they will share the impressions gained from the landscape via their work with the general public, who will be able to visit the colony at set times.

The buildings merge with the changing landscape as robust volumes. Due to their design, colour and material, the buildings either blend in or contrast with the landscape. Each building has its own programme, form, scale, spatiality and relationship with the landscape. Each intervention in the designs responds to qualities of the specific spots. Carefully designed windows offer a framed view of the landscape from the spaces in the buildings.

The cloudy skies, the light and the alternating seasons continuously change the view of the peat meadow landscape of the Nieuwkoopse Plassen. The four buildings occupy this landscape, always the same and always different.

Graduation committee: Machiel Spaan (mentor), Anouk Vogel and Ard de Vries. Additional members for the exam: Micha de Haas and Jeroen van Mechelen.