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 a high security bulwark and an eye-catcher. It yields a corridor spread over four floors with cellular offices and laboratories. Size and location of each laboratory can be adapted to suit changing demands and conditions. The NFI has been cut open horizontally and seems to accommodate a glass volume. The steel box acts as solar shading. Light penetration is different on each side. The glass volume seems to lie just off centre because the steel cantilevers around the building are not equally deep. The architectural and spatial expressions of the interior are determined by material and colour. Form and space are virtually without properties, except in the part adjacent to the entrance, where an auditorium, library and conference room are stacked on top of one another.