Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam — Cantilevered Extension, Museumplein

19 September 2017 · Amsterdam

The Stedelijk's 'bathtub' extension by Benthem Crouwel Architects pushes hard against the deep autumn blue above Museumplein — the cantilevered roof sweeps out over the grass-banked entrance with the flat authority of a drawn line. Architecture as graphic subject: the sharp undercut edge does more compositional work than anything hanging on the walls behind it. A building that makes a claim about itself from fifty metres away, and the claim holds.