Neutelings Riedijk Architects have revealed final designs for the merger of three Dutch museums in Leiden, incorporating a central atrium to seamlessly blend old with new.

Combining the Natural History Museum ‘Naturalis’, the Zoological Museum in Amsterdam and the National Herbarium of Leiden and Wageningen, the existing 20,000sq m (215,000sq ft) museum will be renovated with further construction adding another 19,000sq m (204,500sq ft) of space.

The design includes a 36m (118ft) high atrium, which will act as the meeting point between the existing Natural History Museum and the new expansion. In addition to exhibition and storage space, the institution will also contain a laboratory, office space and educational areas.

As part of Neutelings Riedijk’s plans, a series of exhibition halls in the main atrium will be stacked on top of each other from largest to smallest. Each hall is connected through a series of stairs on what is referred to as ‘museum mountain’.

The glass crowning the hall uses three-dimensional elements to form a leaf pattern, while its windows will be screen-printed with coral designs. Both the inner and outer facades of museum mountain are decorated with fossil designs and feature natural stone panels resembling layers of the earth.

Once finished, the Naturalis Biodiversity Center will house a collection of 37 million artefacts – making it among the top five attractions of its kind in the world. The expansion is scheduled for completion in early 2018.

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