Beeld en Geluid

Hilversum has been the centre of Dutch broadcasting since the 1920s and the Media Park holds most of the industry, and the Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid is its archive: around a million hours of Dutch radio and television, film and music, one of the larger audiovisual archives in Europe. The building, by Neutelings Riedijk and opened in 2006, is a cube whose facade is made of coloured cast glass panels carrying relief images from Dutch television history, and about half its volume is below ground - a deep vault holding the physical carriers, visible from above through the atrium, which is the most striking thing in the building. The museum above it is interactive and aimed squarely at Dutch visitors who recognise the programmes, which is worth knowing: much of the content assumes you grew up watching this material.

History

The institute's history goes back to 1919, when one of its forerunners, the Nederlandsch Centraal Filmarchief, was founded. It was set up in 1997 as the Dutch Audiovisual Archive and took its present name in 2002, and in 2019 the Museum voor Communicatie of The Hague, founded in 1929, merged with it (Wikipedia, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision).

Highlights

• A coloured cast-glass facade - relief images from Dutch television on the panels.
• A vault below ground - the physical archive visible from the atrium above.
• A million hours of media - among the larger audiovisual archives in Europe.
• An interactive museum - built around programmes Dutch visitors grew up with.

When to go

All year. Half a day.

Things to know

The museum assumes familiarity with Dutch television and a lot of it will not land for foreign visitors. Closed Mondays outside holidays. Very busy with school groups. The archive itself is not open for browsing.

Nearby

Singer Laren is east; the Loosdrecht lakes are south.

Key facts