The museum of modern Friesian art bridges the Wijde Wijk, the Grand Canal in the restored classical landscape gardens of the 17th century in outlying Oranjewoud. Despite it being a largely enclosed mass, an emphatic link has been laid between the museum and the surrounding landscape. The relationship with the landscape is explicitly defined in the museum café: where the museum crosses the Grand Canal, the façade has been raised like a curtain. Vistas are generated out of the museum café to the mansion at the far end of the water’s axis - embedded in monumental groups of trees - and the flat Friesian countryside with its capricious airs. The view unites the building with its content: the majority of the collection was inspired by the Friesian landscape. Despite the contrast between the Museum Belvédère and the landscape, in its design and the materials used it was visibly inspired by that landscape.

- Museum Belvédère, first prize, best Dutch building of the year, according to the Dutch Association
of Architects (BNA), 2006.

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