Architect Hans van Heeswijk has managed to convert the Amstelhof, a seventeenth-century home for the elderly in Amsterdam, into a light and spacious museum – while retaining its monumental appearance. Afterwards, Merkx+Girod created the interior design. Insofar as the interior forms part of the building’s basic functional layout, it discretely conforms to the clear structure. The exterior space has been designed by landscape architect Michael van Gessel. Here, too, simplicity and clarity were the guiding principles.

Almost everything in the Hermitage in Amsterdam seems successful: the architectural intervention by Van Heeswijk, the interior by Merkx and Girod and the garden design by Michael van Gessel. The contributions from such diverse designers have created a fascinating layeredness determined by common characteristics such as the refined elaboration and the absence of frills.