City Theatre, Haarlem

Year:	2008
Location:	Haarlem
Architect:	Erick van Egeraat
Designer:	Babs Haenen Erick van Egeraat
Client:	Haarlem city council
Project type:	architecture
Product:	tiles, porcelain, glaze in shades of white and green

Design by the architect J.A.G. van der Steur, The Stadsschouwburg (City Theatre) in Haarlem was built in 1918. After a good eighty years, it was necessary to adapt the building for modern use and Erick van Egeraat’s architectural firm was asked to carry out the essential renovation and extension of this state monument. For the restoration of the original building, Koninklijke Tichelaar Makkum supplied reproductions of the original building ceramics. The new fly tower at the back of the building was the most substantial part of the whole project.

The architect-artist Babs Haenen was approached for the cladding of the façade. In an intensive collaborative project with Van Egeraat and Koninklijke Tichelaar, she examined how the ornamental tiles with their colour gradations that she had designed could actually be reproduced. The ceramic elements inserted in the recessed vertical lines in the façade of the rear part of the building, which become lighter and more colourful towards the top (a theme also repeated in the interior), refer to the original details of the building. As far as we know, this is the first façade cladding in the Netherlands to be made of porcelain.