reklam

Designing for sprawl in the Netherlands 1980 - 2004

The NAI Maastricht/Wiebengahal will be open to the public from March 5, 2005 until May 1, 2005.

The exhibition hall will then be closed until 2006 in connection with a major renovation. From the spring of 2006 onward, the NAI Maastricht/Wiebengahal will be open permanently.

No other country in the world has fostered such an artificial landscape as the Netherlands. The exhibition focuses on the interrelation between urban development and the landscape. 'Hybrid Landscapes' will feature three urban developments: Prinsenland (1982-1984), Leidsche Rijn (1994-1995) and Maastricht Belvédère (1999-2009) and a future scenario.

In each of the projects the designers use the morphology of the artificial landscape to add differentiation to the designs and to anchor them in their environment. This is an extremely Dutch interpretation of the role landscape can play in the process of urbanization and sprawl. The designs were developed in a period when strict lines were drawn between the city and the countryside for fear that the Netherlands would be completely urbanized. Thus the projects were designed within clearly defined urban contours, but the designers - Riek Bakker, Frits Palmboom and Michael van Gessel - did not treat the city and landscape as polarities but rather as mutually enhancing entities.

City and countryside
The three projects illustrate a highly conscious approach to the artificial landscape, which is a natural landscape that is transformed, following a lengthy process of agricultural cultivation and land consolidation, into a cultural landscape. The designers analyze the cultural landscape and existing features such as historic farms, houses, warehouses, factories, lock complexes, bulwarks, ribbon developments, height differences, waterways, infrastructure and field patterns become important aspects of the new design. The three designs exude common sense, clear thought and self-awareness. Moreover, the projects highlight three different urban scales. For decades government policy has stressed an almost fearful separation of city and countryside; urbanization was permitted only within clear boundaries as close as possible to existing cities. These projects should not be viewed in isolation, but rather as part of important developments in the Netherlands.

New tasks
The Netherlands faces two important tasks in the coming decades: firstly, a further intensification of the cities, and secondly building in the rural landscape. These arise from advancing urbanization, the restructuring of the agricultural industries and the government's abandonment of the strict delineation between city and countryside. Although there is still a desire for a contrast between the city and the countryside, the two are no longer treated as opposites, but as components of a hybrid. The potential qualities of a given location will start playing a crucial role in the condensation of existing urban areas, including outlying suburbs, and in allowing developments taking place in the rural landscape. The Dutch approach analyzes, preserves and adapts existing landscapes. These function as a base for new developments in which old and new elements interrelate, anchoring the location in its history and environment. This approach offers universal lessons for other countries increasingly confronted with urban sprawl

Opening hours
Tuesday to Sunday: 11 a.m.-5 p.m.
Also on national holidays that fall on Mondays.

How to get there
The Wiebengahal is located next to the Bonnefanten Museum, in the center of Maastricht, 15 minutes' walk from Central Station.

Calendar
June 3, 2005 until January 9, 2006 - Kasteel Groeneveld, Baarn, NL

The Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) is spreading its wings toward Maastricht, where from March 5 onward it will present The Urbanized Landscape: three exhibitions in the Wiebengahal that focus on the design of the urbanized landscape. The Dutch submission to the 2004 Venice Architecture Biennale, Hybrid Landscapes, and The City As Loft about the work of architecture firm KCAP/ASTOC - Kees Christiaanse will be on display for the first time in the Netherlands, and Transformations of the Urbanized Landscape by the Delft University of Technology will present the work urban planning office Palmboom & Van den Bout.

For mode detail:
Agnes Wijers, Coordinator International Projects

Address: Avenue Céramique Maastricht.
Tel: +31 (0)10 4401200
E - mail: [email protected].