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Wijkeroogpark Velsen

designed by Atelier de Lyon + Bureau B+B /

Location: The Netherlands / Type: Flood Resilience / Parks / Water features / Built: 2012 /
Show on Google Maps / Published on March 4, 2013

Bureau B+B: The Scheybeek is a stream that springs from the edge of the inner dunes near Heemskerk, flows through the Wijkeroogpark and ends the North Sea Canal. The stream is approximately 30-cm above ground level here. This artificial situation on the one hand, and the chances for nature and recreation on the other hand are both starting points for the design of the stream. The stream and a new pedestrian and cycle path have been staged in the long park spaces. A game of encounters and disappearances is produced between the visitor and the stream. The stream’s profile consists of a specially designed concrete element and its natural bank. The banks of the stream regularly overflow because of surplus water. Five variations on the standard element adapt stream’s profile of the to the park’s typography. Boulders in stream challenge children to build dams. “Natural variation” develops in part because of human impact.

The widened areas in the stream are not only for water storage, but also function as fishing ponds, water gardens and baby pools. The principal area of the park is where the stream flows into the North Sea Canal. Instead of the stream flowing directly in the canal, an intermediary zone is created behind the sea dike in which two types of water, sweet water from the stream and brackish canal water, mix over a long distance. The special level of salinity will offer a chance for specific brackish water flora and fauna. Two 60-meters in diameter steel plates cut the sea dike in two. The tapered cut intensifies the movement of water from the passing ships in the intermediary zone. This is the place where the water from the stream and the beating waves from the North Sea Canal flow together. It’s a spectacular terminus for the Scheybeek.

Project: Wijkeroogpark Velsen
Landscape Architecture: Bureau B+B stedebouw en landschapsarchitectuur in collaboration with Erick de Lyon
Location: Beverwijk/Velsen, The Netherlands
Client: Grontmij, Recreatie Noord-Holland NV,
Municipality Velsen
Design: 2004-2009
Project Realisation: 2011-2012
Area: 19 ha
Text and photos: Bureau B+B

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