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A Golden Legacy - Constantijn & Christiaan Huygens, XPEX Experience Experts | International Design Awards Winners
A Golden Legacy - Constantijn & Christiaan Huygens, XPEX Experience Experts | International Design Awards Winners
A Golden Legacy - Constantijn & Christiaan Huygens, XPEX Experience Experts | International Design Awards Winners
A Golden Legacy - Constantijn & Christiaan Huygens, XPEX Experience Experts | International Design Awards Winners
A Golden Legacy - Constantijn & Christiaan Huygens, XPEX Experience Experts | International Design Awards Winners
A Golden Legacy - Constantijn & Christiaan Huygens, XPEX Experience Experts | International Design Awards Winners
A Golden Legacy - Constantijn & Christiaan Huygens, XPEX Experience Experts | International Design Awards Winners
A Golden Legacy - Constantijn & Christiaan Huygens, XPEX Experience Experts | International Design Awards Winners
A Golden Legacy - Constantijn & Christiaan Huygens, XPEX Experience Experts | International Design Awards Winners

A Golden Legacy - Constantijn & Christiaan Huygens

CompanyXPEX Experience Experts
Lead DesignersWybe Klaverdijk
ClientWybe Klaverdijk
Prize(s)Honorable Mention
Entry Description

From April 25th till August 28th 2013, the Grote Kerk in The Hague was the
venue for a special exhibition about two exceptional men of the Dutch Golden
Age: Diplomat Constantijn and scientist Christiaan Huygens. The exhibition in
was a spectacular show about father and son’s achievements and their
connections with the House of Orange, the gold in our Golden Age, and the
science.
The Golden Age was a period of great wealth, power, progress and art. Despite
their protestant demureness, people flaunted their riches; and despite never
achieving royal status in that age, the members of the House of Orange
presented themselves as royalty equal to the kings of Europe. This ‘gold of the
golden age’ was the basic idea of the exhibition design; it had to be
overwhelming and it should give a rich and almost decadent “Versace-feeling”.
Another starting point for the design were the colorful paintings of the Golden
Age. Society painters like Peter Paul Rubens and Abraham Bloemaert used gaudy
colors: gold, red, blue, green and purple, as opposed to the browns and greys of
landscapes and interiors painted for the mass market. Each chapter had is own
bright color and rich decorative pattern.
Dutch painters started to specialize in techniques or genres, and used their
painting to show eye for detail and technical skills, like incredibly refined painted
lace collars. This detailed richness is translated into the wall designs. From a
distance you see a portrait, f.e. Constantijn Huygens. The closer you get the
more details the patterns have, like the yarn of the lace collar. We used the most
advanced canvas-printing techniques to catch the sharpness and richness of
their patterns.
Because the venue was a spacious church, we used large shapes that underline
the form of the church itself, without mirroring it or physically touching the
building. The walls are almost luminous freestanding objects.Shape and color
counter-balance saturated grey and brown-tones and the mass of the church