Koningin Máximakazerne

Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, 2018

The project brings together all the branches of the Royal Military Police (Koninklijke Marechaussee, KMar) responsible for maintaining security at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport.

The KMar project is a multi-functional complex of living, working, and training facilities for an approximately 1,500 staff stationed at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport. The complex, when seen from the air and from the runways, should provide a bold architectural accent for the main entrance gate to the Netherlands.

The complex is built in layers of buildings of different heights, the higher placed strategically around the borders of the site, while the lower are situated closer to the centre. The design's multi-layered arrangement is carried out vertically as well. While the first two floors are rectangular, monolithic, and cast in concrete, the upper two floors are light, built in metal and glass, in a dynamic serpent-like form.

The complex is protected from the noise emanating from the highway and airport runways by eight meters high soil dike. Evocative of a medieval walled city, the design of the Koningin Máximakazerne is actually a contemporary expression of today society's need for security and protection of its democratic values.

The Koninging Máximakazerne is a military complex evocative of a medieval walled city with contemporary comfort.

Zvi Hecker