It was the Portuguese who started the Transatlantic Slave Trade in the 15th century. The Netherlands had approximately 600,000 enslaved individuals, accounting for 5 percent of the total Transatlantic Slave Trade. The central European country has been slow to take accountability for this: In 2022, Dutch officials issued a formal apology for crimes against humanity. Reparations still haven’t been made.
Now, the City of Amsterdam has plans to build a new museum dedicated to this history. The City of Amsterdam launched an international architecture competition for the National Slavery Museum, in tandem with the National Slavery Museum Foundation, a nonprofit. The site is on the western tip of Amsterdam’s Java Island, in the eastern harbor area.
The competition invites architects and landscape architects from around the world to participate. It entails the ideation of a new 96,000-square-foot building, and a nearly 270,000-square-foot park. “The team should represent diverse communities and have a personal relationship with the history of slavery in the Netherlands,” a press release stated.
The winning designers will be paired with a local engineering team appointed by the city. Early-career designers, historians, and contextual experts from other disciplines should also be included in the project team.
“The building of the National Slavery Museum is more than just a building: its appearance must do justice to its exceptional purpose, in terms of architecture, expression, materials, form and setting,” the open call affirmed. “For the recognition of the history of slavery, a dignified and meaningful building is therefore required. A building that houses and conveys the full story of the Dutch history of slavery in different ways. A building that is easily accessible and occupies a prominent location.”
The accompanying green space will ultimately serve as a point of reflection for taking in the museum’s contents, while also supporting the museum’s programming as an extension of the campus into the exterior realm.
Submissions must be sent no later than April 7, 2026. A shortlist of 10 teams will be announced in June.
The jury competition includes architects, historians, and museum directors who hail from the Netherlands or have connections with colonies that were a part of the country’s slave trade, including Francesco Veenstra, Chief Government Architect; Winy Maas of MVRDV; Erik van Ginkel, managing director of the Rijksmuseum; and cultural historian Jennifer Tosch, a Surinamese-African American.
The museum is slated to open as early as 2028.
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