Zonnestraal (estate)

The estate Zonnestraal is a former sanatorium in Hilversum, the Netherlands. The building was designed by architects Jan Duiker Bernard Bijvoet and Jan Gerko Wiebenga, and is an example of the Nieuwe Bouwen. In 1995, the estate was submitted to UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites, but it was ultimately not listed. Hubert-Jan Henket (Bierman Henket Architecten) and Wessel de Jonge Architecten were awarded the 2010 World Monuments Fund/ Knoll Modernism Prize for their restoration of the Zonnestraal Sanatorium. Deitrich Neumann, from the Department of History of Art and Architecture, Brown University, Providence, one of the members of the jury, stated "this careful restoration does full justice to the subtleties of the original building, its particular handling of light, and the seeming weightlessness of its composition. In this project, practical conservation and thorough scholarship reinforced each other in finding the best approach to the preservation of one of modern architecture's most important buildings."