Courtesy of ZJA
As ZJA outlines, on a stormy night in 1749, the Dutch East India Company ship the Amsterdam could no longer be steered. As a last resort, the captain sought shelter close to the coast and beached the Amsterdam on the shoreline. All 330 sailors, carpenters, soldiers, officers and passengers reached the shore unharmed, but in the following months the ship was enveloped by seven meters of sand. The Amsterdam is the best-preserved ship of the Dutch East India Company; as the design team explains, understanding and preserving the content of the Amsterdam will bring to light hundreds of connections and objects from 18th century Amsterdam.
Architecture studio ZJA has designed the concept for a museum in the Netherlands to house the wreck of the historic ship Amsterdam, which is currently sunk off the coast of Hastings, UK.
Named Docking the Amsterdam, the proposal will recover and relocate the wreck without ever taking it out of the water. A museum will then be built around a glass tank containing the wreck allowing visitors to view the 40-metre-long shipwreck from all angles.
Above: the museum will be sheltered by a white canopy. Top image: a walkway will provide a view of the shipwreck from above
The Amsterdam ship was built in the 18th century by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) but was engulfed by sand on the English coast after becoming unsteerable in 1749 on its maiden voyage to Asia.