DISCOVER THE ORANGES
Paleis het Loo
As a museum dedicated to a royal family still in office, Paleis Het Loo is unique. And precisely because the House of Orange still reigns, it’s quite complicated to make an exhibition about the Dutch monarchy. After all, this is a story about history, politics, diplomacy and its living members.
- Location
- Apeldoorn (NL)
- Client
- Paleis Het Loo
- Year
- 2023
Project data
- 2900 m2royal (hi)stories
- 350.000yearly visitors
- 4permanent exhibitions
- 5years of renovation
The museum recently underwent a major renovation and expansion. We designed the four new permanent exhibitions, two of which already opened in 2022: the ‘Historical Palace’ and ‘Traces of the Past’. The two newest exhibitions are now open: ‘The House of Orange’ and ‘Knighthoods and Honours’.
The multifaceted monarchy
The exhibition ‘The House of Orange’ examines the Dutch monarchy from three perspectives. The introduction explores the relationship between the House of Orange and the Dutch people, including how orange became the national colour of the Netherlands. Then we present a chronological history of the monarchy. Our cubic scenography suits our storytelling as we place historical inflection points in sharp corners along the timeline. The exhibition concludes with a journey through the monarch’s lifecycle. Visitors witness how the monarch navigates their public and private lives.
Every object on display is an entry point to a bigger story.
A landscape of cubes
Visitors meet the main characters of the House of Orange through a monumental landscape of cubes. We divided the royal family’s chronological history into smaller, easy-to-access content blocks. Every object on display is an entry point to a bigger story. Animations, films and photographs complete these stories. Text signs provide in-depth content, but even those who do not want to read can dive deep. Piece by piece, you discover how the Netherlands became a kingdom and which royals played a role.
Monarchs – they’re just like us! Or are they?
This is the central question in the East Wing, where visitors journey through a monarch’s life from cradle to grave. To visualize this lifecycle, we used the palace walls as our canvas – printing related images, quotes and news headlines on the walls. We paired themes and milestones with the wing’s architecture.
Three-part collage
