Landscape Architects

OKRA

The Netherlands /

Authors: Mark Hendriks, Sofia Opfer
NL / ENG, Hardcover, 23x22 cm, 204 pages, Full Color

isbn 9789492474506

For the past ten years the Rijkswaterstaat, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment, have been working to strengthen some weak links in the coast. Alongside building the required coastal defence, the coast zone investments also ensure that Katwijk remains a tourist destination and supporting the local economy of seaside towns. With the need to strengthen the Katwijk coast, care is taken to preserve the value of the existing town and, ultimately, how this can also be made stronger.

In 2010, the municipality has engaged a process to regain quality of life and invest in the promotion of the touristic thermal city. Since the Roman times the city of Dax, in the southwest of France, is known for its hot water springs. OKRA’s plan is to develop a pedestrian friendly scheme for the city centre and to renovate one of the main spaces, the Fontaine Chaude Square.

The Brink Park, unlike the name suggests, was no park. It was evident it wasn’t seen as a park as even the city map of Apeldoorn did not indicate the space as a park; parked cars and buses dominated the space. The challenge was to transform the space into a park with facilities for different users whilst meeting the required parking; this was achieved by constructing an underground car park and park above.

Bellamy Park is located by the harbour of Vlissingen where the Merchant Harbour once stood. Bellamy Park and the Ruyter Square regain a new relationship with the old ports. The Ruyter Square will be slightly raised with sitting stairs at the Fisheries Harbour.

The Korenmarkt is the most urban area in this part of town where bars, restaurants and shops form the walls of the square. In the centre of the square stands a kiosk and along the edges of the square there are terraces. Emphasis is on catering and terraces. The location of the square in the city is unique.

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Jane Irwin Landscape Architecture

Australia /

Balfour Street Park is a small scale neighbourhood park in Sydney created within the existing geometry of local streets and partial closure of Balfour Street. The pocket park forms a gateway to the new urban village of Central Park, formerly Carlton United Brewery, to become a pedestrian connection between the inner city suburbs of Chippendale and Broadway.

The Lemur Forest Adventure at Taronga Zoo is one of Taronga’s most intimate and memorable visitor experiences. Located at the heart of the zoo, in the former seal pools, the project brings together play, education and interpretation through a consolidated experiential journey.

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Bureau B+B

The Netherlands /

From the jury statement: The project Objets Trouvés convinces with outstanding artistic quality and visible historical awareness. Moving the bunker from its ancestral place and letting it re-appear in a new one is both astonishing and effective. This blunt dislocation, which first reacts to infrastructural requirements and finally turns the bunker into a ready-made, creates a whole new quality of visual perception. It is in this aesthetic space of resonance, where contemporary infrastructure development ultimately becomes conceivable as a possible instalment of the European warfare history. Consequently, the actual traces of history are kept visible with a genuine purpose – although this required such an action as moving a bunker. As a bold and even radical gesture, the project inscribes itself in the infusible tension between past, present, and future on the one hand, and between absence and presence on the other. In doing so, it formulates a notable reference point for the contemporary discipline of landscape architecture as an artistically informed cultural practice.

Recorded in Amsterdam in November of 2018.

The Blaricummermeent is a plan for about 750 houses and 18,5 hectares businesspark. The plan distinguishes itself by the blaricum-way of organization with curvy roads and a green atmosphere. An important part of the urban plan is the construction of a new river called the Meentstroom.

In the middle of the last century the elegant boulevard was transformed into a pulsating arterial road, with little thought for pedestrians. The aim today is to transform the polluted and noisy inner Mariahilfer Straße into a traffic restricted zone. The main goal is to provide a greater quality of life for residents, visitors, local businesses and shops.

After completing the urban design plan for the city centre, Bureau B+B created a design for the public space. The position of the new city centre on a mainly raised surface level made planting directly into the ground in the public space almost impossible. This is why the ‘Blooming City' theme was introduced as the leitmotif in the design of the pavement, street furniture and plant compartments. The theme reinforces the city’s identity, making it recognizable as a ‘new town’.

The nautical character of Zierikzee is still conspicuous in the centre and the relationship with water is strong, partly due to the visible ebb and flow of the tides. The small city owes its monumental, richly decorated houses to a history of sea trade. Where fishing villages can sometimes be sober in their expression, Zierikzee seems to possess a rich culture of beautification.

The primary stimulus for renovating the square was the project 'High Quality Transport for the Drecht towns'. A regional project with the intention of making public transportation faster, safer and more customer-friendly. We asked ourselves how this square could be transformed into a more representative entrance to Zwijndrecht, within which the specific local green qualities could be best expressed.

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gruppe F

Germany /

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Hassell

Australia / China / Singapore / UK /

The Fangshan Tangshan National Geopark, 40 kilometres east of Nanjing, is the site of one of the world's most fascinating archaeological discoveries and home to China's new Great Relic Museum.

The design leads the way in the integration of landscape-based therapy tools. The rehabilitation courtyards incorporate pathways of various distances and obstacles to navigate; providing everyday challenges, such as navigating kerbs, slopes and stairs that allow patients and therapists to set goals and measure recovery.

Brookfield Place in Perth is a new mixed-use precinct that has transformed the city’s central business district, bringing life into an area that was long neglected and void of activity. The vibrant destination now attracts people by the thousands, as home to the world’s largest resources company and some of the Perth’s best restaurants and leisure activities.

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Ujirany / New Directions Landscape Architects

Hungary /

The area of Zsolnay Quarter is divided into a southern and a northern part. The much bigger northern part - as part of the Zsolnay family's living space - was originally created as an English landscape garden, interlaced with the family's own works as in a fairy tale. On the other hand, the southern area could be interpreted as the counterpole of the northern part ...

In 2014, the 4th metro line of Budapest was completed. The project area is the vast open space of the metro lines’ final station that is to be a temporary design for only a part of Etele square, as the future plan of the district is to renew the square together with the metro exit as a comprehensive whole ...

Teleki Square is located in Budapest's centre's socially most diverse and colorful areas, in one of the city's most disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Following a successful EU tender for funding the renovation of the square, an inclusive community-based planning process was initiated ...

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Thomas Balsley Associates

New York / USA /

The site is waterfront and city, gateway and sanctuary, blank slate and pentimento. Design leverages the site’s industrial heritage and spectacular views to establish a resilient, multi-layered recreational and cultural destination.

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URBICUS

France /

Urbicus has carried out all kinds of projects for regional development at various locations and contrasting sites since it was founded by Jean-Marc Gaulier in 1996. The agency works to transform landscapes whose public or private organisations entrust the work to us. Urbicus (in Latin 'of the city' ), experimented with the consequences of civility projected in nature and nature projected in towns.

Landerneau is built around its river, the Elorn. Rethinking the public spaces along the quays therefore means rethinking the town’s relationship with its river. The quays arranged as a big, linear park on both of the river’s banks are a natural breathing space in the town and a place to experience its urban history.

Located amid the natural areas of the Thalie Valley, albeit on a former landfill site at the edge of the railway infrastructure in neglected areas, and in a flood zone, the challenge of the project is to manage the transition of the site while taking account of pollution and flooding constraints. The Parc de la Thalie (Thalie Park) provides a connection between the amenities (a new hospital and a medical centre) and the public spaces at the entrance to the town of Châlons-sur-Saône.

The rehabilitation of the ‘park de la prefecture’ is an opportunity to improve its opening towards surrounding neighbourhoods. Designed in 1974 by Alain Provost, the park prefecture has retained its ‘green lung’ qualities but is isolated at present. Its rehabilitation will eventually open it towards surrounding facilities, shops and neighbourhoods.

Urbicus: The ‘planches de Madine’ are a unique architectural, urban and landscaping object in total harmony with the site. From buildings and squares to promenades, the boards are a symbol of Madine’s renewal. The deck ‘s relief emphasizes the topography of the site, its undulations greet the buildings and create its furniture, with the walker traveling above and below the buildings. The deck brings a stroke of modernity to the site’s image and follows the global design direction of the lake’s identity.

The project aims to re-establish the link between the city centre and waterfront by creating a large planted esplanade where the market can be held. This element helps link three existing gardens to create a green corridor from the jardin de Brétinio to place Hoche.

The decay of the forge by the end of the 60’s gave way to wide brownfield expanses and to an exceptional site by the water. It is against such a strong historical and geographical backdrop that the municipality has initiated the urban reorganisation of its town centre ...

Located on former agricultural land and in front of buildings, the park serves as backbone for the new district of Montévrain. Its environments are fed by the rural landscape of the surrounding countryside: prairies, hedge-rows, small woods, and a vast wetland associated with the creation of a storm-water basin.

The wharf is arranged in a large sandstone paved esplanade. It forms a garden of cracks, where the joins draw lines moderately conducive to bio-diversity, and the environment. Parisian style trees and riparian forests are planted and climbing plants adorn the walls. The place is pedestrianised, road traffic is limited to the functional uses of a public and port area.

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Carve Landscape Architecture

The Netherlands /

Carve is a design and engineering bureau that focuses on the planning and development of public space, particularly for use by children and young people. The office was set up in 1997 by Elger Blitz and Mark van der Eng. Carve's clients are local governments, developers, manufacturers of playground equipment, architects and landscape architects.

Playscape be-Mine is about translation of industrial landscape to a playful recreational environment. Especially interesting is the concrete linear play element that much like the old mining shafts runs through an array of wooden slabs that were supporting the underworld. Furthermore, climbing on the concrete gets increasingly more difficult towards the top and requires some team work, which, according to the designers, acts "as an immaterial reference to the hard physical work of the old mine-workers, who had to trust one another unconditionally". Reaching the top immediately pays off the effort of climbing. A poetic and beautifully designed coal circle offers an epic view on the surrounding landscape, industrial remains and of course the coal. The storytelling is intelligently manifested through means of abstraction.

Strijp S is the former factory site of the old Philips-complex in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The 27 hectare large area, which is the home of a considerable amount of monumental buildings, provided work to thousands of people between 1920 and 2004. In 2004 Philips sold Strijp S to investor Park Strijp Beheer, who will be redeveloping the area in different phases to a unique living and working environment, while respecting the original character of the remaining constructions.

'Kavel K' is situated on a triangular plot, boxed in by a railwaytrack and a connecting road. It is a skating, sports- and youth facility which attracts a wide range of user groups. The public space and the building are designed as a unity; the facade and the skate-cradle even 'melt together'.

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