"This tunnel, is The Hague"

A city, excavated in the ground – that is how the project architect Rob Hilz describes the Souterrain. Not just any underground tram station, but a place where everything comes together: public transport, parking, shops. "Folks in The Hague will always keep calling it the tram tunnel, that won't change. In any case, as long as they perceive it differently."

Rob Hilz: “You never feel closed-in in the tunnel.”

Metro stations and parking garages can be such gloomy places. Dim hollows with concrete columns where hidden dangers could be lurking. Yet the tram tunnel will give a totally different impression, Hilz promises the people of The Hague. “Clarity, daylight, a lot of glass, so that you never feel closed-in. You see the tram as you enter, and when you park your car at night, you can still be seen by people at the station.” Hilz knows that light, activity and a clear arrangement are what people find pleasant. The parking garage is twice as light as an average parking garage. There's not a single column to crash your bumpers into, the stairwells are made of glass and from the garage, you walk straight into the shops. “This is also good for the shops, because their basements always seems to be at the bottom end of their business; they could use some pepping up.” From 1995 to 2000 Hilz worked at OMA, an architectural company in Rotterdam run by the famous Rem Koolhaas. Hilz was involved there as a project architect for the construction of the Souterrain. When he started up his own company LAB-DA, Hilz took the further elaborations of the assignment with him. Any changes, which took place afterwards, were done so in conjunction with OMA.

Rough concrete

In the last few years the most important changes were made to the finishing, says Hilz. Initially there was a lot of attention for decoration: rusty red steel plates along the wall, a gorgeous soft type of brick from Iran. “At that time, construction was at a standstill because of the leak, and that gave us the time to take another good look at the tunnel. More and more I got the feeling: the more you put into the tunnel, the more you detract from the whole idea. Then the idea came about to simply leave the walls unclad, in rough concrete. Beautifully lit. It gives you the idea that you're sitting in a rocky environment, excavated in the ground. On the other side, where one can touch the tunnel: the floors, the balustrades – that's where it has to be a bit chic.” The concrete walls are finished with a graffiti-resistant coating. They can therefore be cleaned properly. Piping, cables, sound and lighting have been concealed as much as possible. “If you see all kinds of cables and piping across a wall which is also rough, it'll look rather scruffy,” says Hilz.

No Moscow

Some people once told Hilz: we want a tram tunnel which has the quality of the metro in Moscow, where the underground stations are palaces with beautiful chandeliers and columns and communistic images. Hilz didn't like that too much: The Hague is The Hague and not Moscow. “However, the rough walls and the chic floor could provide a gorgeous contrast, and that contrast, is The Hague. On the one hand you have the elegance of The Hague, and on the other you have the down-to-earth directness of The Hague people.”