Buitenplaats Meuleman

The present, outdated camp site in De Lutte will be converted into a location with rural holiday homes: Buitenplaats Meuleman. The irregular site is surrounded by a splendid landscape: what was once a heath, later planted with conifers, is now variegated woodland and heath with beautiful juniper bushes. 

The Buitenplaats Meuleman site is located in the wood, but opens in the direction of the neighbouring heath. There is an attractive variation with open woodland consisting of isolated trees and denser woodland with many conifers. In addition, there are various characteristic and visually attractive sand dunes. The variety of moods and the variegated landscape add to that attractiveness and form the basis of the design.

The holiday homes are arranged in clusters between the sand dunes, leaving the existing visual axes towards the heath intact. The informal positioning of the clusters in the wood makes it possible to preserve a large degree of (woodland) landscape between the buildings. Each cluster looks out upon a particular landscape feature, such as the heath, the oak wood, or the lake. In this way the holiday homes make optimal use of the qualities of their surroundings.

The holiday homes are raised so that they seem to float above the landscape. To experience the environment to the full, they are orientated towards the landscape like a telescope: transparent in the direction of the wood and closed in the direction of the other buildings in the cluster. A further advantage of the raised homes is that this makes it possible to preserve more of the existing trees and requires less soil excavation. The architecture forms a family in which cohesion is achieved by using the same materials and roof shape, although no two buildings are identical.

The homes are set directly in the landscape without a garden or courtyard, but with (internal) terraces in which existing trees can be incorporated if desired. Residents park at the entrance to the site. Illumination is limited to low lighting beside the paths to the homes and on the homes themselves. The bare woodland soil will be enriched and turned into a green carpet of heath, ferns and grasses. Bushes will be added at strategic points as visual pointers and to guarantee privacy.

Buitenplaats Meuleman is by no means a closed holiday home complex. Former routes over the heath that disappeared in the last century as the result of forestation and the camp site will be restored as public footpaths. The camp site restaurant is also open for a recreational public, so that the woodland site remains an attraction for them too.