Newsletter January 2015

Presentation of Yearbook 2014 with Campus and Groene Loper at TU/e by MTD

On Saturday 13 December 2014 the presentation of the Yearbook on Landscape Architecture and Town Planning 2014 took place in Rotterdam. The presentation of the book took place at Rotterdam Central Station, a design by Benthem & Crouwel architects, Team V architecture and West 8, which was selected for the yearbook.
The chairman of the independent selection committee Guido Wallagh, explained the selection made for the eleventh Yearbook.
On behalf of Team CS, Jan Benthem spoke about the design of Rotterdam Central and urban designer Anne Seghers reminisced on the ten yearbooks that have appeared since 1991.
Then the first copies of the Yearbook were presented to Astrid Sanson (town planning office / Municipality of Rotterdam) Tjerk Ruimschotel (BNSP) and Frans Boots (NVTL).
The Yearbook on Landscape Architecture and Town Planning 2014 includes 25 exemplary projects; the best that Dutch designers have to offer.
It included the recently completed development by MTD landschapsarchitecten of the Campus and Groene Loper (green runner) at the University of Technology in Eindhoven. MTD landschapsarchitecten's development plan for the Campus and Groene Loper for TU/e forms part of the final selection of innovative and agenda-setting plans.

In June 2011, MTD landschapsarchitecten was selected in a phased tendering process to draw up a development plan for the Campus and Groene Loper of the University of Technology in Eindhoven.
The University of Technology in Eindhoven is aspiring to develop into a multi-functional TU/e Science Park, and to manifest itself internationally as one of the trend setting and innovative technological universities. In this, the Campus and Groene Loper are considered to be a calling card and enhances the image of being a sustainable and innovative university.
With its development plan, MTD landschapsarchitecten's first objective was to use the ‘greenery’ as a prominent connecting quality of the campus. Here the Groene Loper section on the western side of the main building was used to emphatically seek a link to the Dommeldal (valley). The pond, which was reintroduced at the entrance of the main building, marks the beginning of the orthogonal system of the Campus and Groene Loper. The entrance to the main building, in combination with the pond, signifies an open, inviting reception area and turns it from a utilitarian entrance into a theatrical show-piece.
The second most important component of the development plan is ‘the runner’; the students and users are given a key role. To this end, motorised and cycling traffic are barred from the Groene Loper. A new connecting route has been introduced for slow traffic; the so-called scenic walk. This facilitates students and other users and provides for all kinds of convenient use in a number of ways.
The planning process and highly intensive and interactive communications process for the development plan of the Campus and Groene Loper for TU/e, which includes the accommodation service, the Faculty of Architectural Engineering and other users, took place in an extremely short space of time. This has made it possible to already complete and occupy an important part of the Campus and the Groene Loper during the course of 2013 and 2014.

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Gigantic project taking shape; the Stadswalzone of ‘s-Hertogenbosch

Without even noticing, a gigantic project is taking shape in the Stadswalzone (rampart zone) of Den Bosch; the walls and the floor of the future parking garage as well as the entrance to the parking garage are in place. In the construction pit, where Heijmans continuously works on the construction to realize the plans, one seems to lose one's sense of size and scale. This is certainly the case when, at the place where you would be driving into the actual parking garage, you'll see the historical city wall hanging in an enormous lifting contraption…… An image moreover, which will never be seen in this way again; the wall will soon disappear in the concrete structure of the parking garage.
A number of voluminous plans are taking shape in the Stadswalzone, of which the underground car park, with approximately 1000 new parking places for the inner city of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, is the biggest. The Stadswalzone is marked as a municipal archaeological monument, and in this respect the municipality has a further ambition to preserve and to enhance the perception of this culture historical element.
The historical context also determines the extensive complexity of the the project. In the meanwhile there have also been some delays in the building process; Heijmans announced that, other than as previously reported, the project shall not be delivered by 31 December 2014, but by the beginning of 2015.

MTD landschapsarchitecten is the designer of the development plan for the Stadswalzone, the Zuiderpark and the Casinotuin, and has also drawn up the coordinating management plan for the three simultaneously running design routes; the design for the parking garage and bridges by Studio Leon Thier, the restoration of the city wall by Van Roosmalen Van Gessel architects, and the development plan for the public space by MTD.
The strategic aim of the plans for the Stadswalzone is to achieve an attractive connecting route from the new parking garage to the inner city of Den Bosch and vice versa. In addition, the plan is especially geared towards the perception of the encounter of the historical inner town and the open landscape of the Zuiderpark and the Bossche Broek. The new parking garage to be built will be situated to the foot of the city wall. On the roof of the parking garage the former inner city canal will be brought back.
The second strategic aim of the development plan is the reintroduction of the leafy excursion through the city past the city walls; under the leafy canopy of the monumental trees present. A part of the city excursion, the bastions, are rather special places; not only in their culture historical importance, but also in their contemporary significance as intersections of routes and activities along the excursions through the city and as lookout points. For Bastion Baselaar the development plan particularly aims to enhance the habitational quality and the green qualities. The traffic accessibility to the new parking garage which is situated here, will remain subordinate to the park-like atmosphere.

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Integrated plan Sint Jan , Sint Jans Garden and Sint Jans Museum

The ambition of the Sint Jans church council is to develop the Sint Jans Museum, that is established in the Bouwloods, into a ‘accessible, attractive and educative visitor center which can add an extra dimension to a visit to the Sint Jan’. It should not only be destined for tourists but also for the inhabitants of ‘s-Hertogenbosch. By this the Sint Jans Museum, which houses the largest collection of medieval sculptures within the Netherlands, reveals an suitable museum emanation.
Therefore over a year ago the church council esthablished the Foundation Exhibition Sint Jan, which controls the planning process regarding the museum.

Molenaar & Bol & Van Dillen architects, HeemArchitects and MTD landscape architects, in consultation with the Foundation Exhibition Sint Jan, are working on an integral design for the Sint Jans Museum and Sint Jans Garden. They searched for ‘a balance between an attractive shape and a meaningful content’ .
Hereby the Bouwloods is extended with a 'shell', creating a spacious reception hall. It is the intention to tell the story of the construction, the history, the meaning and functioning of the cathedral in an accessible way. Some exhibited statues will speak about this for themselves. It is proposed to measure glass bottom plates in the outskirts of the museum, who offer a view on the sculptures in the basement; part of the museum that at the moment is not accessible to the public.
New substantial windows will certainly create an overwhelming view from the museum on the cathedral. It is also proposed to replace the roof of the Bouwloods by a flat roof, so that visitors from here can examine by binoculars the Sint Jan and its wealth of sculptures. On the other hand it’s also possible to observe this fortune from the glass elevator, which is invented at the side of the Torenstraat and brings visitors to a height of 15 meters.
To make the Sint Jan more accessible, the idea is to open up an entrance from the Hinthamerstraat at the Noorderportaal, besides the actual entrance at the Torenstraat. Actually for a tourist this is the most appropriate entry for a visit to the Sint Jan; you come to the cathedral through the Sint Jans Garden. Hereby the Sint Jans Garden will be reopened and returned to the city. It creates ‘a tour around the cathedral’ .

MTD acquires assignment Stationsplein and Percee Maastricht

The municipality of Maastricht has the ambition to redesign the Stationsplein and part of the Percee or Stationsstraat of Maastricht and to award it more residence quality and appearance as an entrance of the inner city and the rail station. Causes are the introduction of an underground bicycle storage and the possible arrival of the tramline Maastricht / Flanders at the Stationsplein. However, the arrival of the tramline, is last month under discussion and is being reconsidered.
The realization of the underground bicycle storage is foreseen in the course of 2015 / 2017 and will be finished amid 2017 / end 2017.
Besides enhancing the spatial quality and identity of the Stationsplein, a major objective of the redevelopment plan is the optimal integration of the underground bicycle storage and tramline and the situation and design of the entrances and other connections between the bicycle storage and ground level. All this has a close connection with the routing of pedestrians, cyclists, cars, buses and possibly the tramline on the Stationsplein and down the Stationsstraat.
On account of the tender by the municipality of Maastricht for formulating a strategic vision and design for the Stationsplein and part of the Percee or Stationsstraat, at the end of December 2014 MTD urban & landscape architects.

In the agency’s view, the assignment particularly refers to maintaining and strengthening the existing cultural-historical, urban , architectural and green qualities of the Stationsplein and Percee or Stationsstraat, the maximum integration of the bicycle storage, the streamlining of the routing of the various forms of traffic, the designing of the entrances to the bicycle storage and other furnishing elements and the adding of motives for staying and meeting in the public space of the Stationsplein and Percee .
Besides, it is important to ensure the support for the plans and, from the beginning of the planning process, to pull up intensively with the relevant officials of the municipality of Maastricht , the engineering firm that elaborates the bicycle storage and other stake-holders, such as the workgroup Kwaliteitsimpuls (Quality Boost) Wijck, NS and ProRail.

Design Research Foodscapes Academie van Bouwkunst

At the Academie van Bouwkunst in Amsterdam currently runs the research group Foodscapes under the direction of rural sociologist Han Wiskerke. The research program within the department of Landscape Architecture, links scientific research to spatial research. Within the three-year program students will investigate the spatial conditions for the transformation to sustainable regional food landscapes and the spatial consequences for the urban and rural landscape.
Besides design studios, workshops and lectures for students of the Academy, within the program a number of design agencies and experts. in the field of the various food systems, will do spatial research; a knowledge circle Foodscapes will be constituted. Within the research circle three scenarios for a sustainable and healthy future food production for the city of Amsterdam will be studied for their spatial implications. What will a more sustainable and healthy food system contribute to the design of city and landscape ?
At the end of last year the Academie van Bouwkunst approached three design agencies for the elaboration of the scenarios:
- LA4sale ; multifunctional agriculture near the city;
- from Paridon x de Groot; responsible industrial agriculture;
- MTD urban & landscape architects; urban agriculture on buildings and in public space of the city.

The three design agencies start the design research in January 2015, in close collaboration with the Academie van Bouwkunst and the experts. The ambition is to round the research in May 2015 with an exhibition and publication.
In the offices view, the scenario of urban agriculture has to focus on the preconditions to come to a productive mosaic landscape . According to the agency it isn’t about a by the government to be implemented, top-down system, but about a system that organically develops by bottom-up initiatives , which are well facilitated by the government and where the government scope for social entrepreneurship. Hereby, the public space receives a sustainable, productive element that ultimately doesn’’t depend on government grants.
The intention of the agency is to focus on developing and visualizing spatial typologies of urban agriculture (companies) and the preparation of designs samples for the distinguished typologies . Hereby there will be paid particular attention to the design of the transitions between urban agriculture and the city and to the spatial quality that can be achieved

Froukje Nauta and Sabine van Ruijven come to strenghten the team of MTD

Respectively the 1st of january and february 2015 Froukje Nauta and Sabine van Ruijven come to strengthen the team of MTD urban & landscape architects.
Froukje Nauta has enjoyed her training at the IAHL Larenstein and gained experience as a landscape architect at Buro Lubbers, Elings landschapsarchitecten en Strootman landschapsarchitecten.
Sabine van Ruijven studied at the Wageningen UR and gainde experience at Atelier LoosvanVliet.