The Netherlands
hectare, usually comprising 4,000 to 5,000 housing
units overall.
The Portland VINEX estate is being constructed in
a former agricultural area. As it is land which was
once reclaimed from the sea, the subsoil is mainly
clay. The area is characterised by dikes (usually with
ashes and poplars growing on them), and also by
large arable field plots and orchards with shelter-
belts. The infrastructure of the area is situated on
the dikes, whose height provides a unique experi-
ence of the landscape.
The southern side of the site is bounded by a minor
river, the Koedood. In the urban development plan,
this river will be widened considerably, and will
form the principal axis for the estate, whose urban
structure is characterised by a series of residential
islands lying in the newly created body of water.
Other elements of the landscape, such as former
sea embankments, have been incorporated into the
urban development plan.
Design development
Because the neighbourhood’s architecture had no
uniquely specific features, these had to be sought in
its surroundings – in other words, in the landscape.
This is characterised by the succession and variety
of images which unfold within a short distance:
to the north-east, there is the urban landscape
of Rotterdam with its high-rise buildings; to the
north-west, there is the awe-inspiring scale of the
docklands area, with its terminals, oil storage and
shipping; and to the south there is farmland, with its
dikes, orchards and large fields of brassicas.
The Portland neighbourhood park is situated amid
the kind of housing that typifies a VINEX estate:
mainly two-floor buildings with a pitched roof. The
park incorporates characteristics of the surrounding
area, not by bringing features of the surroundings
into the park, but literally by making the surround-
ings visible. A 10m hill has been raised in the park.
Because most of the houses are only 9m in height,
it is possible to see the surrounding landscapes
over the rooftops.
The neighbourhood park is laid out in a triangle, and
contains the hill – itself an offset triangle – with a
variety of elements placed around it, such as an
urban farm, a playing field and an area for sitting. All
these elements are geometric in form: oval, square,
oblong or round.
