European Landscape Architecture: Best Practice in Detailing

The Netherlands

Because the hill has been positioned in the middle of

this relatively small park, there is no point from which

the whole project can be seen at once. This makes

the idea of a walk through the park very attractive.

Subsidiary spaces have been created by the mass of

the hill, in which spatial units with a particular func-

tion have been placed, such as a dog-walking area, a

playing field and a ‘hangout’ for young people.

The park covers nearly 5ha. In principle, it has

a loose shell paving throughout, in which holes

have been made in various shapes, such as trian-

gles, squares, circles and ovals. These elements

take up roughly half of the total surface, so that

the shell paving covers a surface of approximately

2.5ha.

The diversity of materials has deliberately been kept

to a minimum. The ‘islands’ in the sea of shells have

all been edged with black 07/20 x 20 x 100cm con-

crete strips. Heavy black concrete 200 x 50 x 40cm

kerbing strips are laid around the hill. Where paving

other than the shells has been used, black concrete

paving blocks (20 x 10 x 10cms) have been laid.

Designated seating (i.e. benches) has been used

only sporadically. Thanks to its design, the edge of

the hill in fact constitutes one huge bench.

The park’s primary lighting has been limited to the

bicycle path running through the park. However, other

lighting has been used to accentuate specific aspects

and ambiences of the park at night. In other words,

lighting has been used more to accentuate aspects of

the design than to provide functional lighting.

Hill with artwork

The most eye-catching feature of the park is the hill,

whose 10m-high mass gives it a prominent pres-

ence. The base of the hill is triangular, a shape that

is shown clearly by the high black concrete kerbing

blocks, which are 0.5m high, 0.4m wide and 2m

long. In total, they create a kerb nearly 500m in

length, which implicitly provides a huge amount of

seating. At four points little flights of steps enable

visitors to climb onto the surrounding concrete

kerb, and thus to climb the hill.

At some point in the future, an artwork by Nico de

Wit will be installed on the hill. This will fully capital-

ise upon the site and the design philosophy of the

park as a whole. On top of the hill, well above the

highest point, he has created a balcony from which

the surrounding landscape can be surveyed to even

better effect.

The urban farm

An urban farm has been sited on the east side of the

park. The construction of several more houses on this

side of the park will guarantee control – social and oth-

erwise – of the various comings and goings there. The

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Cross-section