INVISIBLE DESIGN
Paleis het Loo
Paleis Het Loo, the largest 17th-century palace of the House of Orange-Nassau and a national museum since 1984, has been closed for a long time due to a thorough renovation. Kossmanndejong worked with the museum to give the palace a new lease of life. You can now visit the renewed palace routes, the audio tours and a presentation on the history of Paleis Het Loo in the renovated historic palace.
- Location
- Apeldoorn (NL)
- Client
- Paleis het Loo
- Year
- 2022
Project data
- 1600 m2of carpets
- 2different routes
- 3audio tours
- 5years of renovation
Three-part collage
Traces of the past
Your visit starts at the servants’ entrance, a room we transformed to tell the history of Paleis Het Loo. A film brings a model of the palace and gardens to life and takes you on a journey through time, from the construction of the palace to the current renovation. You can also admire traces left by residents of Paleis Het Loo over the past centuries. Most of them are everyday objects, from pots and shards to the water pipes from the gardens’ first fountains. Archaeologists discovered some of these objects during the renovation.
Historical immersion
The palace rooms look the same as they did when the royals roamed them. To allow visitors to fully experience this historic atmosphere, we omitted as many “museum” elements as possible. Unnecessary distractions, such as text signs, disappear. We also examined how visitors should move through the space. While Paleis Het Loo is one of the most visited museums in the Netherlands, it’s also full of small corridors and narrow rooms. By adjusting the routes and audio tour length to support the expected number of visitors, we ensure a smooth and comfortable visit.
If we did our job well, you won't even notice we were there.
