Kamerlingh Onnes laboratorium

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction

The LABORATORY for natural sciences, chemistry and anatomy of Leiden University was designed in 1856 by Henri F.G.N. Camp (1821-1875) and completed in 1859 in an Eclectic building style with Neo-Classical elements. Camp was the architect to the King of King William III in the period from 1849 to 1874, but designed the laboratory as a private architect. The laboratory was later named after the Nobel Prize winner prof. dr. H. Kamerlingh Onnes who made liquid helium here for the first time in 1908.

On the corner of the Nieuwsteeg and Steenschuur a corner pavilion was added to the original symmetrical building in 1922. The laboratory was built on the so-called Kleine Ruine which had come into being after the gunpowder disaster of 1807 and was prominently located on Steenschuur, next to the Nieuwsteegbrug and opposite the Van de Werffpark, within the protected townscape.

N.B.: The post-war additions to the rear are of subordinate significance for the protection.

Description

The elongated laboratory is constructed on a rectangular ground plan over two storeys in red brickwork under a hipped roof with slates in Maas coverage.

Above the roof the ends of the party walls project. The building is partially cellar-basements and crawl spaces, which are accessed from inside and by several entrances in the hardstone plinth. Also rectangular ventilation grilles and four-pane cellar windows in the plinth.

The originally symmetrical front facade (south) consists of a central risalit of three window bays under a pediment, with nine-bay wings on either side. On the cornice in gilt capitals the name Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory. Before the central risalit an extension of one storey with rusticated natural stone corner pilasters and a natural stone balustrade on the balcony. The projecting corner pavilion on the Nieuwsteeg (west) has four window bays. On all corners moulded and rusticated pilaster strips.

Round-headed windows under lintels, three round-arched windows in moulded wooden frames on the first floor under the pediment and four round-arched windows with amongst others diagonal glazing bars on the floor of the pavilion. Continuous wooden water mouldings and a plastered stringcourse at the height of the floor divide the facade horizontally. The facade is finished with a wooden cornice and gutter on cramps. In the tympanum dentil bands.

The side facade of the pavilion (west) on the Nieuwsteeg is curved and has three window bays. Articulated identically to the front facade, but with three round-arched recesses on the floor.

Interior

In the laboratory the following components have been preserved among others: The main staircase with a floor and plinths of hardstone, a plastered balustrade with a sandstone coping stone, mouldings and pedestals of sandstone and moulded plastered segmental arches. The staircase is covered by a glazed skylight. In the corridors on the ground floor: oval rose windows above the doors; in three fanlights stained-glass windows from the twenties of the twentieth century depicting chemists or physicists at work.

In the rooms: concrete floor tiles and hardstone reading tables on fluted consoles for vibration-free installations. Furthermore a barrel vault in part of the corridor on the first floor, wooden roof trusses, the original floor beams and many doorposts and cassette doors. The original machines with which helium was made liquid for the first time are also still present.

The most distinctive component of the interior is the lecture hall in the pavilion on the Nieuwsteeg with the associated storage room for demonstration models. In the storage room wooden cabinets over two tiers still stand. The lecture hall is a rectangular room under a coffered ceiling with three curved edges, carved brackets and rosettes. The balcony at the front is separated from the hall by three round arches. In the hall there are tiered seating and a balcony with rows of fixed wooden fold-down seats. Furthermore in the hall among others wooden wall panelling with cassettes and Ionic pilasters, wooden radiator casings, cast iron balcony railings and cast iron balusters in stair rail, bronze door handles and square wooden columns and pilasters with Doric capitals.

Valuation

The laboratory for natural sciences, chemistry and anatomy, which came about in phases, is of general importance, due to cultural and architectural historical as well as typological value as an early and largely well-preserved example of a university building intended for experimental sciences, executed in the eclectic-classical manner characteristic of the building period.

Moreover the laboratory building is of general importance due to its significance for science because of the remembrance of the work of prominent natural and chemical scientists, in particular H. Kamerlingh Onnes and other Nobel Prize winners, as well as due to the well-preserved lecture hall and the original machines with which helium was made liquid for the first time in 1908.

Furthermore the laboratory building is of importance as the first university commission in the oeuvre of the architect to the king H.F.G.N. Camp and due to urban planning value as prominent development of the former Kleine Ruine on the Steenschuur.