Relight V&D Haarlem: Daylighting in a Former Department Store

Relight V&D Haarlem reimagines a vacant former department store as a daylight-filled public library in the centre of Haarlem, The Netherlands. Designed as a graduation project by Mark Van Der Blom, the scheme confronts a problem shared by many Dutch city centres: when the V&D department stores (short for Vroom & Dreesmann) went bankrupt in 2016, their large buildings sat empty and dragged down the liveability of the streets around them. These structures once formed an important part of urban life, and their deep floor plates offer generous area for new public functions, yet their largely closed facades and roofs leave the interiors dark.

Van Der Blom investigated how to introduce daylight into this deep building and studied how that light would shape the future use and perception of its spaces. The redesign applies various daylight-adjusting measures and different daylighting principles so that each space is felt differently through its spatial dimensions, materials, textures and colours. At the heart of the plan sits an octagonal atrium that draws daylight down into the deep interior. The atrium also gives a sense of spaciousness and orientation, since viewlines across its floors connect the building’s different functions. The red marble of the atrium parapets reflects daylight into the surrounding rooms and casts a warm red tint on their surfaces, while spaces along the facade receive direct exterior light and read as cooler and more white.

Daylight and the public library

Converting a closed retail box into a reading environment puts daylight at the centre of the brief. A public library asks for calm, even illumination at the page while avoiding the glare and heat gain that direct sun can bring to a deep plan, so atriums, lightwells and carefully placed openings are common tools for this building type. The study of daylighting shows how reflected and filtered light can guide movement and mark thresholds without signage, exactly the role the octagonal atrium plays here.

Adaptive reuse projects like this one also keep embodied energy in place and return a familiar landmark to civic use, a strategy increasingly valued across Haarlem and other historic Dutch cities. By treating light as the main material, the project turns a symbol of retail decline into a bright, legible space where people can gather and read.