In the museum, the visitor is faced to think about the borders between normal and crazy. Next to the psychiatry, also media, visuals, and the patients self-present the topic. Where one sees disturbance and wants to help, the other sees a happy bird and we have to accept it as it is.
The walls of this unique building talk for themselves. A tour through the different rooms is not only educational and exciting but also insinuating. The visitor is able to see the border between crazy/healthy and normal/abnormal in an interactive way. In Dolhuys attention is given to the patients that can best explain what craziness means. Their stories are the main inspiration for the museum’s design.

The museum of psychiatry Het Dolhuys confronted us in a direct, and even physical, way with the perplexity produced in us by psychiatric patients, and perhaps also with the chaos in their own heads. “What is normal?” is the question posed at all levels, and the visitor is given no chance to keep his distance. A penetrating experience.

The entry distinguishes itself by an innovative design process in which all parties were jointly involved. Process and product create together an experience that is recognizable for everyone who is introduced and drawn into an often difficult and frequently inaccessible subject.