Amsterdam Tulip Museum
The new, extended museum is located in the heart of Amsterdam on Prinsengracht 116, two doors down
from its old location. It is designed as a continuous flow of spaces, highlighting the various aspects of
tulip history and cultivation. Distributed over three floors of approximately 200 m2, the museum consists
of nine different thematic rooms and a museum shop. The design pays hommage to the Dutchest of
flowers – but in a playful and very contemporary way.
A lot of attention was paid to creating sensory experiences and providing the installations with haptic
qualities, inviting the visitor to watch, listen, touch and smell. Each room of the museum was provided
with its own style, atmosphere and theme, turning the visit into a playful and poetic walk through the
history and present of the tulip. Its tale is presented in bite-sized segments: putting the pieces together
in the end, visitors can form a complete image of the story of the tulip.
The design was a collaborative process involving graphic designers, film makers and different types of
artists, selected by NEZU AYMO architects together with the curator, and resulting in a richness of wall
papers, letter types, video and film installations and artefacts specially designed for the museum.
Design: NEZU AYMO architects
Address: Prinsengracht 116, 1015 EA Amsterdam
Client: Amsterdam Tulip Museum
Project architects: Yukiko Nezu and Skafte Aymo-Boot
Curator: Durkje van der Wal
Graphic Design: Haller Brun
Video installation: Menno Otten
Tulip history movie: Steggink & Steggink
Perfume installation: Maki Ueda
Wall drawing: Robin Stam/vijf890 ontwerpers
Clay sculptures: Arthur Meijer
Contractor: Brandwacht en Meijer
Design: May - Sep. 2011
Completed: April 2012
MUSEUM ENTRANCE / MIRROR ROOM
Entering the museum is a surprising experience.
The visitor walks through a small door and unexpectedly finds herself in a endless tulip field.
The illusion is created by covering the walls by mirrors, duplicating a few row of tulips into an infinite landscape of flowers.
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The program described a museum with a clear idea of learning through experiencing.
We underline this aspect by using the exhibited objects to create a variety of rooms
with each a particular spatial character which will stay in the memory of the visitor.
The movement of the visitor through this sequence of different atmospheres is the
element which bind them together to a rich and playful museum experience.
The tulip is the protagonist of the museum - it is present in every room in one form or
another.
NEZU AYMO architects
EXHIBITION SPACES
SHOP
MUSEUM
ENTANCE
* Film
* Garden/ science room
* Colours and shapes
* Tulipmania
* Tulip vases
* At home
* The world of tulips
* Autochromes
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Entrance / Mirror room
Installation of endless tulip field.
Colours and shapes
Showing all the different varieties
of tulips combined with encyclopedic
information about them.
Tulipmania
The story of the financial
bubble in 1637.
A flow of experiences
Garden/science room
The tulip gardens of Leiden and
Istanbul as pop-up spaces.
Autochromes
The first colour photography
by Leendert Blok, tulips around 1930.
Tulip vases
Dutch tulip tradition meets
Dutch tulip vases/ceramics/
design tradition.
The world of tulips
At home
The world map shows the locations
of tulip production and consumption,
tulip festivals, wild tulip fields.
A small canal room with daylight
full of everyday tulip-themed items;
furniture, wall paper, curtains, lamps
EXHIBITION SPACES
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GARDEN / SCIENCE ROOM
A pop-op installation based on painted garden perspectives
from the 17th century. The first tulip gardens, Clusius’ garden
in Leiden and the 4th courtyard of the Topkapi Palace are
used as backdrops for the display of the history of tulip
cultivation. The whole installation is a beech veneer cut out
with text and images printed directly on the wood.
TULIP ENCYCLOPEDIC RAINBOW ROOM
120 tulip cards are hanging from a bright cloud. You can pull
the card towards you and read the informative text on back
side. The colourful tulip images are arranged like a rainbow.
The cloud is floating between a sky blue floor and sun light
yellow ceiling together with 3 big tulip hats for tulip perfume
testing.
TULIP VASES
A selection of traditional and contemporary tulip vases are
displayed on round mirror discs, each with one ultra thin metal
support, underlining the heaviness and fragility of the vases.
The position of the vases on an island in the middle of the
space makes it possible for the visitor to move around them
and study them from all sides.
AT HOME
By placing a small house in the middle of the space we create
a dialogue between inside and outside. The visitor can walk
around the house and look through the windows to see the
interior of a home filled with tulip themed objects. The exterior
facade is composed of specially designed ‘bricks’ in the
shape of tulips.
EXHIBITION SPACES - Design
TULIPMANIA
The room has the atmosphere of a 17th century Amsterdam
canal house. Objects from the time of the Tulipmania are
displayed in niches in the walls. The vitrine frames are
designed after thorough research of furniture details of the
time. The floor is kept free for one large baroque table with the
big 1637 tulip catalogue.
THE WORLD OF TULIPS
In the corridors and in-between spaces a tulip world map,
tulip postcards from around the world, and autochromes
vintage tulip photography are displayed. In this way,
the thematic spaces are being connected, forming an
uninterrupted world of tulips and bulbs around the visitor.
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designed as a landscape
SHOP
The museum shop sells only tulip related items;
tulip bulbs, books, jewelry, stationary, vases, ceramics,etc.
SHOP
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SHOP
Apart from being a shop, it has the crucial function as the entrance of the museum. Therefore, we have given it an atmosphere that corresponds with the experience-spaces of the museum.
The shop is designed as a landscape. The long tables can be seen as a field and the products as the flowers growing out of it. Small water containers inserted in the surface of the tables
make it possible to place real flowers in the field. Flower bulbs are displayed inside the high parts of the tables - in the ground - and the other products in between. In the background a
silhouette of a tulip farmer is working the field. Under the ceiling, hundreds of strings in different shades of grey and blues make up a typical endless Dutch sky.
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SKY
2 km of handcoloured strings create a
horizontal layer of depth under the ceiling.
The grey, blue and pink shades form a Dutch
spring sky.
TREE
Everything below the horizon line of the field
is painted brown. The tree display shelf is
growing out of the soil.
FARMER
A silhouette of a tulip farmer working in the
field.
FIELD
A 15 minutes film loop lets you enter inbetween the tulips in an endless field.
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Section
11
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Level 0
1. Shop
2. Entrance / Mirror room
3. Film
4. Garden/ science room – Istanbul meets Leiden
5. Colours and shapes: Tulip encyclopedic rainbow room
6. Tulipmania
7. Tulip vases
8. At home
9. The world of tulips
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10. Autochromes, the first colour photos
11. Exit / Greetings from
Level -1
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Contact information:
Graphics by Haller Brun
NEZU AYMO architects
Damrak 70, studio 3.58
1012LM, Amsterdam NL
t: +31(0)20 4233615
[email protected]
www.nezuaymo.com