last stop for medieval ijssel cog

fully intact wreck
The IJsselkogge was discovered in 2009 at the bottom of the IJssel river near Kampen. Cog wrecks are not rare, but this wreck was surprisingly intact due to its immersion in fresh river water. The cog, measuring almost twenty by eight meters, was excavated in 2016 and transported on a pontoon to Lelystad for research and conservation. It is officially part of the Maritime Archaeological National Collection, which has a shipyard there.

museum object
After careful, time-consuming preparation in Lelystad, the shipwreck was wrapped in protective foil this week and transported to its last stop before its final destination. The restorer in Zwartsluis will replace the steel beams, bands, and jacks that held it together for almost ten years with a steel frame. This will allow the IJsselkogge to be displayed to its best advantage as a museum object. 

unique building
When designing the unique exhibition building, the ship was the main focus, not the architecture. We also worked with the municipality of Kampen to determine the best location for the building and will be further developing the design in collaboration with Weever Bouw from Kampen in the coming period. The building will be located on the museal Koggewerf, a peninsula outside the dykes in the IJssel river that is also home to a – sailing – replica of a cog. The IJsselkogge is so large that the exhibition space will be completed after the wreck has been placed in its final location – it won't fit through the door.

demanding technical requirements
The technical requirements for the building are demanding, but that only makes it more interesting for us. Direct sunlight is out of the question, the location outside the dykes requires a flood barrier, and conservation requires a constant temperature and specific humidity. We propose using the same sustainable ‘thermos principle’ in Kampen as at the Collection Center Netherlands  (CCNL) and utilizing ground-source cooling to regulate the temperature.

The exhibition space is expected to open in 2028.