CULTURAL SECTOR
The heading of this case study is deliberately about museums, the plural of museum. Our senior consultant Jan van Eck has contributed his knowledge and experience in many transition projects of prominent museums in the Netherlands. A few high-profile museums are: The Rijksmuseum, the Mauritshuis, Paleis het Loo, the Noord-Brabants Museum, the Amsterdam Museum, Museum De Lakenhal and Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. These projects not only involve the development of architectural and technical design briefs and specifications, but also often involve creativity in devising solutions. Architects and engineering firms like to make use of Jan's more than 30 years of experience and his architectural and design background.
In most cases, we are deployed to support and advise a museum. The design of a security vision and security policy often forms the basis for the subsequent elaboration of PoRs and specifications. Depending on the assignment, we act as project manager or advisor and during the realisation and after completion we carry out audits to test and assess the quality. In many projects, the assignment also includes drawing up the budget and monitoring the finances.
A speciality that Jan van Eck has developed at the request of the government is the integral testing of composite architectural structures. Walls, window frames, glass and hinges and locks are described, tested, audited and reported according to a procedure. All this in the spirit of the applicable NEN-EN standards. The result of the tests gives all parties involved in the transition insight into the real resistance and detection because a realistic attack is staged. This practice-based test is significantly less expensive than testing in a laboratory, where the method is far removed from a realistic attack. The qualitative tests ensure that the precious museum treasures remain where they are.
*NEN : Dutch standard I NEN-EN : European harmonised standard
