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The Leyweg municipal office, The Hague’s second City Hall. The building will be a signal, giving expression to the political will to create a symbol of the renaissance of the southwest area of The Hague in the form of a 32,600m2 public service centre, including a wedding hall, library and 49 dwellings.
Orientation point - The municipal office is both a functional service centre and, through its form, a prominent orientation point in the city, not only as an element in the city skyline but also because of the way it is anchored on a city square. The shape is inspired by the genius loci of the plan by Willem Marinus Dudok: an open city, in which primary volumes define the space of a spacious ‘park city’. Optimal integration within the surrounding urban fabric has resulted in a building with a triangular form of gleaming Norwegian marble on a stepped base.
Contact through circuits - In the centre of this triangle is a light, spacious public information plaza. Above this is an atrium, above which are a number of layers with offices arranged in circuits in accordance with ‘new working’ concepts. These circuits encourage informal contact. In the open corners of the triangle are seating areas with outside views.
Integrated sustainability - In the structural concept of the Leyweg municipal office, spaciousness, construction and installation technology are optimally attuned to one another, with sustainability and economic intelligence as the primary criteria. A variety of measures – such as the compact, flexibly adaptable form of the building, climate-control floor with concrete core activation and the intelligent use of natural light through the atrium – have led to a design with integrated sustainability.
