Netherlands Forensic Institute

Located in Ypenburg, The Hague, the NFI is a glazed volume in a steel box set in a typical Dutch motorway landscape. The building is both a high security bulwark and an eye-catcher. The NFI programme yields a corridor of almost 1100 metres long, lined on one side by cellular offices and on the other by laboratories. This required corridor was ‘folded up’ to produce a building on four levels, one of which is underground. The programme is arranged around six patios and in such a way that the size and position of the individual laboratories can be adapted to changing circumstances; these laboratories are located along the outer perimeter of the building. The steel box acts as solar shading, where light penetration is different on each side because the steel cantilevers around the building are not equally deep. The architectural and spatial expressions of the interior are determined by materials and colour.