In collaboration with Tom Thys Architecten, Studio Jan Vermeulen developed a concept for the entrance area and infrastructure of the Prinsenpark landscape park near Antwerp. To this end, they designed a new visitor center to replace the aging existing buildings.

Prinsenpark: first royal, now sustainable and wild

Prinsenpark is a landscaped park in Kempen-Nord near Antwerp. The grounds were originally laid out in 1880 for a royal estate, which was never built. Now the park has developed into a unique nature reserve with a clear focus on the experience of nature and an educational mission. In 2021, Prinsenpark won the international Green Flag Award for its sustainable vision, good facilities and wide range of education and activities. Since its foundation, the park’s unique identity has developed over 140 years. Remarkable is the combination of the original royal, formal park structure and the current wild flora.

The forest in the middle of the park has an almost oval shape and is encircled by a path. A network of paths winds through its trees, in which the view alternately thickens and thins out again. At its edges, the park partly merges into the surrounding woods and fields, while in other places it is sharply demarcated by buildings or roads. However, the Prinsenpark is characterized by its fascinating “bocage” landscape, which spreads out around the oval forest. In France, bocage refers to fields and meadows that are bordered by organically curved hedges. To the north, a dyke forms the boundary of the forest, the “Kastelsedijk”, which cuts through the landscape as a long straight line. This is also where the new visitor center is located on the site of a former moorland area.

A simple, beautiful, practical ensemble

The new visitor center by Studio Jan Vermeulen and Tom Thys Architecten is an ensemble of two elongated gabled roof buildings. They are based on the 18th century farmstead typology that was common in this area for the cultivation of the former moorland. The wooden cladding reinforces the impression of a rural building.

The two volumes of the center are aligned in such a way that they form a large inner courtyard, which serves the foresters. Generous roof overhangs create a sheltered entrance and outdoor area or outdoor workplace.

The architects want to create a multi-layered relationship between the project and its surrounding landscape. This aspect is to be reinforced by means of new paths, clearings, canals and rainwater retention areas, anchoring the project in its surroundings in a variety of ways.

The first building, the visitor center, includes offices, a canteen and changing areas for park staff in addition to facilities for visitors. The second smaller, L-shaped building houses the foresters’ depots and workshops, with access to the inner courtyard. A row of galvanized steel gates defines a flexible covered space for the storage of forestry equipment, which is largely open to the inner courtyard.

Simplicity and sophistication for a lean budget

Despite the low budget for the Prinsenpark visitor center, an intelligent, flexible ensemble was developed. The building elements that visitors come into contact with are thus given a higher level of detail and a certain sophistication. This can be seen, for example, in the design of the large V-shaped gutter of the main building in contrast to the simple untreated corrugated aluminum roof of both buildings.

But also in the simplicity of the rooms and halls built from white concrete blocks – they form the robust and neutral background for the park’s activities. In contrast, the timber-clad lightweight walls, custom-made doors and windows and the built-in furniture stained in deep blue, green and purple colors create a subtle contrast to the concrete blocks.

Insight into the hustle and bustle of Prinsenpark

As an allegory to the royal but wild landscape of the Prinsenpark, the new project combines elements of local building culture in the ground plan with the formal plan of a country house. Studio Jan Vermeulen and Tom Thys Architecten designed an enfilade of rooms and halls lengthwise under the gabled roof for the visitor center. There is a roof projection along the building towards the oval forest. This not only creates a covered outdoor space for visitors, but also serves as sun protection for the large rooms along the main façade.

The enfilade consists of a sequence of large rooms and smaller spaces in between, allowing for a variety of uses in which different rooms can accommodate different activities. Large window and door openings connect the information desk, the reception area and the training room with the offices, the staff canteen and the central courtyard. In this way, the operational activities of Prinsenpark can also be seen and experienced by visitors.

A balanced ecosystem

The project by Studio Jan Vermeulen and Tom Thys Architecten focuses on integrated sustainability in a variety of ways. Various building elements are assembled in such a way that they can be easily dismantled and reused. In this respect, the building functions as a sustainable material bank for the future and still meets the passive house standard. Water management is used as an educational element and connects the project and the landscape through a new ecosystem. The existing canals and ditches have been transformed into “wadis” to create a pond and infiltration landscape where flora and fauna can thrive. This gives the biodiversity of the site a new boost.

In addition, the path of the water is made visible to visitors. From the collected rainwater in tanks and ponds to the purification and filtering of the wastewater in an independent system to the discharge of the water into the system of natural landscape retention areas. In addition, various dwellings for animals, such as the local bat population, have been integrated into the façade.

The ensemble of buildings thus contributes to the values and vision of the Prinsenpark. Prinsenpark is one of the rare areas where nature, culture and recreation are interwoven into a special and balanced ecosystem.

The architects from the “llabb” office also created a special proximity to nature with the wooden hut “The Hermitage”.

The development of the main goods station in Hanover was anything but a dynamic process. For two decades, many thousands of square meters stood empty in the middle of the capital of Lower Saxony. It was only a few years ago that the ideas of Topotek 1 and AFF Architekten from Berlin got things moving. For almost twenty years, huge areas in and […]

The development of the main goods station in Hanover was anything but a dynamic process. For two decades, many thousands of square meters stood empty in the middle of the capital of Lower Saxony. It was only a few years ago that the ideas of Topotek 1 and AFF Architekten from Berlin got things moving.

For almost twenty years, huge areas in and around Hanover’s main goods station lay fallow. For Expo 2000, a walk-in light installation temporarily attracted visitors and brought the breathtakingly large hall to life. But after the light pavilion was dismantled, it was primarily the offices and investors who struggled to find a new use for the space. On site, the space slowly degenerated into “wasteland”.
The central hall, measuring almost 40,000 square meters, was long regarded as the largest and most modern goods hall in Europe. However, as freight transport increasingly shifted to trucks and containers, the site lost its importance. It was finally abandoned in 1997. This also marked the end of 120 years of railroad history in the northern part of Hanover. What had once attracted many workers and prompted the construction of apartments came to a standstill.

The turning point came at the end of 2014: The company Aurelis, which is developing numerous areas formerly owned by Deutsche Bahn, began to demolish a large part of the hall. It reduced the area from 38,000 to 10,500 square meters and commissioned the landscape architecture firm Topotek 1 together with AFF Architekten from Berlin to redesign the hall and its surroundings. Working together, the planners succeeded in merging the large interior and exterior spaces in a special way. The synergy of architecture and open space design creates an open-use shell that is now waiting for new life.

Read the full article in Ga+La 11/2019. Click here to go to the store.