Zeemanlab

Zeemanlab stands in Amsterdam as a former physics laboratory, completed in 1923 for the Municipal University. Abel Antoon Kok designed the building for Amsterdam’s Public Works Department. Its architecture combines Berlage’s functional approach with the expressive Amsterdam School, while marble fills the entrance hall. A bronze commemorative window and a bust of Pieter Zeeman mark the interior near the first-floor stairs.

Built for precise magnetic and optical experiments, the laboratory used little iron to prevent interference with magnetic fields. Its largest vibration-free table weighed about 250,000 kilograms. Zeeman’s research group used the facility for work connected with the Zeeman effect, the magnetic splitting of spectral lines. A small lecture hall stood beside the laboratory before both spaces became university offices.

The building became a national monument in 2001 and later changed into apartments. In 2022, an EPS Historic Site plaque joined the exterior’s scientific story. Above the entrance, wrought iron forms a symbol of the Zeeman effect, while a prism breaks a light beam across the window below. A wall fountain by John Rädecker faces the J. W. van Overloopplantsoen.