Urban design for a residential district of approx. 600 houses on the edge of Groningen. The location is sited in the foothills of the sand ridge between Groningen and Eelde. A landscape accommodating a rich collection of loose fragments: rural estates, nature reserves, holiday cottages, farmsteads and conference resorts that have been strung on an old main road. The plan elaborates on this theme and has been organized as a patchwork of larger and smaller enclaves. A habitat of residential islands grouped around that one large enclave, the pond called Piccardthofplas. By isolating the pond spatially and hydrologically even further, the preservation of the unique natural quality of this brackish habitat has been guaranteed. As a result, one actually does not live by the pond but around it. The pond is the 'genius loci', animating the plan like a collective secret. The plan was commissioned by the municipalities of Groningen and Eelde.
The design concerns a sectional elaboration of a part of the district Nesselande and was commissioned by the City of Rotterdam. Its central point is the ambition to create an exclusive residential wetland environment that can be developed in phases. The sea of owner-occupied plots is structured by the system of watercourses, the residential dykes - the ‘jackstraws’ - and by the subtle blend with residential buildings to be developed in a project-based way. This family of buildings forms a scattered pattern of architectural anchor points in the ‘aesthetics committee-free’ residential landscape. The design was made in conjunction with the H+N+S landscape bureau and comprises 520 houses. See also architectuur lokaal.
An urban design and a landscape design for the hills on the southern edge of Heerlen. The plan gives shape to a spatial concept in which suburban living adds a new scenic feature to the existing wooded area. Suburban living has been designed as a landscape of large plots and gardens. The way rainwater is discharged has been utilised as a spatially structuring principle in this residential landscape. This has resulted in a terraced landscape of ‘graften’ and ‘grubben’, which enhances the scenic and ecological qualities of the nearby wood.
The plan highlights the freedom of individual residents to shape their own domains. Paradoxically, it has also brought about a set of clever strategic rules, providing individual freedom with a firm framework.
The plan comprises 400 upmarket non-subsidised owner-occupied houses and 30 ha of a new wood and is the result of a limited competition commissioned by the Heerlen Municipality and Hoogveld bv.
