One of the ambitions of Strootman Landschapsarchitecten for the design of the new urban landscape Bloemendalerpolder is to use the new programme to create a Vecht region identity and to ensure a close relation with the River Vecht.
A new residential landscape
One of the ambitions of Strootman Landschapsarchitecten for the design of the new urban landscape Bloemendalerpolder is to use the new programme to create a Vecht region identity and to ensure a close relation with the River Vecht.
Location
Gemeente Weesp en Gemeente Muiden
Principal
Stuurgroep Bloemendalerpolder
Partners
Atelier Dutch
Surface Area
450 ha
Design Year
2006-
Implementation
2016-
The medieval peat meadow area of the Bloemendalerpolder is situated at the intersection of the old transport axis of the River Vecht and the new transport axis of the A1 motorway. This zone in the vicinity of Amsterdam is due to undergo a major transformation in the next few decades. The assignment is considerable: 2,700 dwellings with the corresponding amenities, 60 hectares of open water, 330 hectares of new nature, the doubling and moving of the A1 motorway, an eco-aqueduct beneath the Vecht, and a new access road to Weesp.
The essence of the design is a particular approach to the whole area in which landscape architecture and (sub)urban planning are inextricably linked with one another. By tackling the assignments in the field of nature development, water management and housing within a single overarching design, an interweaving of housing and landscape emerges that is highly characteristic of the Vecht region. One of the ambitions of the design is to use the new programme to create a Vecht region identity and to ensure a close relation with the River Vecht. The Vecht region is marked by the contrast between high-density housing in towns such as Loenen, Breukelen, Vreeland, Muiden and Weesp, and low-density rural housing in ribbon development and neighbourhoods.
This contrast is incorporated in the design by creating a Vecht town environment near the present centre of Weesp with canals, a link by water with a lock to the River Vecht, and parking in inner courtyards. The central element of the planning area is a new lake as a residential setting and for recreation. New ribbon development with a large variety of housing typologies will spring up between the Vecht town environment and the lake. Small neighbourhoods with an equally large variety of typologies will be grouped around the new lake and partly connect with the ribbon development. A spatial connection will be created between the central area of the Bloemendalerpolder and the Vecht by establishing new estates in this zone with a recreational and ecological function.