The task commissioned by the Rijksgebouwendienst (Government Buildings Agency) is the Organisatie Gericht Huisvesten OGH (Organization-driven accommodation) of the Haaglanden Inland Revenue office in the existing Prinsenhof building in The Hague. In functional terms, the building can be divided up into: the public section including customer reception and the restaurant on the ground floor and the office functions on the upper floors, in line with the OGH concept. An important underlying principle in this assignment was to reuse as much as possible of the existing lay-out and furniture.
By means of specific interventions, an entirely new home for the Inland Revenue has been created. Customers are received in the public foyer. Ironically, by placing an unusual free-standing elliptical volume in this space, the existing winter garden has been preserved. By situating the public functions together it is easy to provide good security. The transparency and the fact that the space is well overlooked help here as well.
The upper floors are arranged according to the new standard within the Inland Revenue: Organization-driven Accommodation (OGH). Here the workspace is not coupled to a person, but to an activity. There are different types of workspaces: administrative, communicative and concentration workspaces. After consultations with the Inland Revenue, a basis for the floor plan was presented as part of the provisional design. Using a list of options, every floor was further elaborated in consultation with the specific user during the subsequent phases.