The North Holland town of Duivendrecht is located in between Southeast Amsterdam and Diemen, but has still managed to retain its own character. The Town Hall on Dorpsplein is an important meeting place for the town’s residents. The old Town Hall was demolished in the past year. This freed up space for a completely new, multifunctional Town Hall, which was recently opened. The new Town Hall is also home to Duivendrecht Library, which is part of Amsterdam Public Library (OBA). Bieb Systemen built all the interior elements and was responsible for fitting out the entire library.

We spoke to Remco Jansen. Remco is the head of OBA’s technical department and was the project manager for the interior design of the new library.

‘OBA has been working with Bieb Systemen for many years. They recently fitted out the Linnaeus Library in Amsterdam’s Oosterpark neighbourhood for us. We have always worked well together and the quality of their work is excellent, so we’ve never had any reason to look for another supplier.

For the Duivendrecht Library, we decided not to use any of the existing retail concepts such as the Blackbox or the Whitebox. Architectural firm Flim designed not just the building but also the library interior. They opted for an open structure and an inviting atmosphere. For example, the library has a reading café that is always open. And because the library is located directly on Duivendrecht’s vibrant Dorpsplein, it’s easily accessible for the public. The architects also designed the cabinets, tables and chairs and the furniture for the youth department – two huge sofas with a mountain of small cushions. Bieb Systemen built and positioned everything exactly according to the design.

The entire process took almost four months. We had set aside two weeks to complete the ultimate design, but due to delays we had to do it all in just one and a half weeks. And then, of course, we also discovered that the dimensions of some of the spaces were different from what we had expected. Fortunately, none of those surprises were a problem for Bieb Systemen. They coolly dealt with every problem that came up and quickly made the necessary adjustments. So all in all, we’re really satisfied with the end result.’