Anne Frank House: From reactive to proactive climate control

The Anne Frank House underwent a radical refurbishment. The student apartments on Westermarkt were being incorporated into the museum and converted into offices. This created space for educational receptions and made it possible to offer more facilities, such as a cloakroom. The museum also has a new and bigger entrance on Westermarkt.

Following the work, the museum itself was refurbished too. Museum visitors will be given more historic context and in-depth background to improve their understanding of the story of Anne Frank and let them experience the atmosphere of the hiding place. The modifications will leave the authentic character of the house intact.

Special assignment

After an intensive preparatory phase, the Zwolle branch of Breman Utiliteit was awarded the contract for the installation works as part of the refurbishment. A special assignment. Due to the building's location and its historic and cultural value, but also because the museum remained open during the work.

Harry Egbers (Breman Zwolle): "The museum must continue to operate, so the work was divided into four phases. In phase 1, work on the new offices was completed so that staff could move into them. In phase 2, we refurbished the old offices. We are now starting our work in the public areas."

Logistic challenge

"As the installers, we navigate between all the employees and visitors during this project. However, dividing the work into phases means minimum inconvenience for the public. Logistically, this is quite a challenge for us, being in the centre of Amsterdam. For that reason, deliveries are combined at set times and unloaded at express speed. And four of us drive to work in one car, so that we only use one parking space."

Surprises during the implementation

Working in an old building always involves surprises. Harry Egbers: "You always come up against unexpected things, like central heating pipes and air ducts in different places than on the drawings. That happens in the Anne Frank House too. Fortunately, we always have a solution."

Preference for Priva

For the building management system, Breman chose Priva Blue ID. Harry Egbers: "We work a lot with Priva. Our engineers have a good relationship with them, and the partnership works well. And in the Anne Frank House, there were already two control boxes with Priva.

Meticulous work

For Breman, good insight at all times into the status of the interior climate is vital. Harry Egbers: "We set natural limit values so that the system alerts us if they are exceeded. But we still continuously login to the system to check the temperature and humidity. Due to the fragility of the pieces, we need to work very meticulously."

"The first time we checked the system, we noticed that the installation was constantly dehumidifying. It was quite a hot day, but the boilers were working at full capacity just to dehumidify the air. Which is necessary due to the crowds of people who visit the museum every day. All those people bring moisture with them, which is bad for the building and the museum exhibits. Particularly in the diary room, which must be extremely well air conditioned. There we have a very small bandwidth of 40-45% air humidity. So, we need to monitor the installation very carefully. It's all meticulous work and Priva makes that possible."