The Dutch government office block De Resident in The Hague has recently undergone a radical refurbishment. The modernizing has been designed by a collaboration between cepezed architects (atrium and design coordination), HofmanDujardin (interior) and engineering firm the Antea Group (stability, MEP, fire safety, acoustics and sustainability).

© Leon van Woerkom | cepezed

flexible central government :

The central government is slimming down in size. Also because of this, it is more and more directed towards flexible work (place) concepts. Additionally and in accordance with overall social developments, themes such as meeting and interaction are increasingly important. The modernizing of De Resident is part of both the state shrinkage and the focus on new ways of working. The complex is situated right next to The Hague’s Central Station.

© Leon van Woerkom | cepezed

It consists of the buildings Helicon and Castalia, respectively counting fourteen and twenty floors with an overall gross floor area of 55.000 m2. Castalia is a late 1960’s building block that American Architect Michael Graves revised in the 1990’s in order to house the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, which returned to the building after its newest redo. Helicon now houses the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment and was originally designed by the Soeters van Eldonk agency, that was intensively consulted during the design process.

Photography by © Matthijs van Rhoon

Neutral entrance atrium :

The Parnassus square between Helicon and Castalia formerly functioned as a mutual outdoors with a darkish, limited atmosphere. cepezed transformed it into a light, semi-public entrance atrium for both departments. The connecting construction is over seventy metres long and has a height of twenty meters. If offers a complete autonomous experience with minimal impact on the existing structures. It is composed of large steel portals with a glass roof on top of these. The compound portals are positioned in a grid of 3,60 metres, have a depth of no less than a metre and are clad in white with stretched fabric and steel sheeting. Thus, they function as neutral side wings that constitute a fully independent building section when perceived in a longitudinal sight line. In a corner-spanning sight line however, they provide a good view over the original Helicon and Castalia.