Weymouth Relief Road - art in the road environment
from Middelharnis through Dirksland
read my account of the total project below:
N215 - an artistic approach
"In 1984 the ''Praktijkbureau Beeldende Kunstopdrachten'' and the
Provincial department of Construction of the province of Zuid-Holland NL
(Office for Public Art Commissions) commissioned me to make a study of
the provincial plans to project a ring-road, the S47 - now the N215 -
bypassing the towns of Middelharnis, Sommelsdijk and Dirksland in the
province, South Holland. I was to explore the possibilities for
implementing innovations resulting from an artistic perception of the
plans.
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poplar screens at Dirksland NL
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bridge at Dirksland NL
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convex passage at Sommelsdijk
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ivy noise barriers at Sommelsdijk
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dike section Onwaardsedijk near Dirksland NL
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The Praktijkbureau was founded to explore new possibilities for
art in the public space. My involvement started out as an experiment.
After presenting my report, most of my proposals were accepted and I was
asked to join the team of the construction phase.
The area to be studied was the former island Goeree-Overflakkee, in the
south-west of The Netherlands. It is a typical Dutch polder-land -
everything made by man. For many centuries this part of Holland has been
enlarged by recapturing land from the sea and cultivated. This was a
gradual change.
the road in its surroundings
Whenever a new large scale project like this one is undertaken, there is
the danger that too much of the original surroundings is lost in the
attempt to fit the new into the old situation. In this process the
original infrastructure is adapted to the direction and character of the
road - drainage ditches are added and lines of trees are planted along
its axis. In this way the accent is moved from the rural landscape to
the throughway. Much damage has already been done following this strain
of thought. But this is not all - after the engineers have gone, an even
more damaging phase is provoked and eventually even encouraged - the
areas bordering the road are adapted to it and before too many years
have passed the original unity is split in half and invaded by a new
entity - the road environment.
My first proposal was to let the new road be as minimal as possible and
have the existing characteristic elements of this landscape to be left
untouched and even be restored as close to the road as was realizable.
For the north section the planning was already too far and, what I had
feared, happened. The provincial planners agreed with me and the second
road-section in the Dirksland Polder was constructed according to my
proposals.
the first section
the Middelharnis entrance
My contributions to the first section of the new S47 were concentrated
on the entrance to the historic towns of Middelharnis and Sommelsdijk:
the Middelharnis entry used to be so that you drove straight into the
town. In the new situation the new course turned to the left and you
would have to take an exit to the right. That location was actually one
of the most uninteresting spaces in the area. A car lot and showroom
added to this. I proposed to make two earthen cones, which would
function as a gateway-like entrance; their heights were to be 9.24 and
8.66 meters. Finally in 1990 the city council of Middelharnis did not
want them anymore. The argumentation of the province was to no avail,
and Middelharnis decided not to give permission to build any cone. The
reason was that the automobile showroom would not be visible from the
main road.
the Sommelsdijk entrance
The entrance to Sommelsdijk was much more subtle. The bicycle crossing
cut through two convex 19 meter diameter spherical mounds in median
strip. These were planned by me as an echo of the much larger cones. Now
the mounds are just a reminder of what could have been. The bicycle
route cuts through the mounds and is flanked by concrete walls following
the convex contour. They also gave a sense of protection because of
their height, which is 90cm. The noise barriers flanking the passageway
into the residential area are made of wood and covered by a thick
covering of ivy. They are built up of short lengths which overlap.
the second section
the road in its surroundings
The section on the other side of, the first dike, the Oudelandsedijk,
was built according to my concept. Just the road was built with no
extra's parallel to it. This lets one focus his attention on the passage
through the second dike.
the dike - Onwaardsedijk
The second dike, the Onwaardsedijk, is a ancient and had lost its
function; but because of its historical value it had been declared a
monument. Its height averaged only three meters. Going over it would
have changed the landscape too much because the bridge was a short
distance further, and there would have been an extra perpendicular dike
between the Onwaardsedijk and the dikes along the canal. So the planners
had already decided to cut through it. They had planned to round off the
truncated ends. This would have more or less camouflaged the dike as it
was already so low. So I decided to make the cut explicit by showing it
clearly. Its height and shape were presented by making a vertical cut
and making it crisp with concrete walls - no higher than the dike -
following its contour. One wall was black and the other white in order
to further disassociate the dike from the road.
the bridge
As the planning of bridge was still in a very early stage in 1984, and
my input was still in an experimental phase, the provincial engineers
proposed that I present my ideas on it. The Dirksland Canal was a very
old waterway and did not have a straight course. Its width varied.
Because the bridge could not be too high in the landscape, the span had
to be shorter than the distance between the dikes which border the
canal. A larger span would have necessitated higher T- beams. Therefore
the engineers originally had the intention to make abutments which would
project from the dikes. I did not want obtrusive additions which did not
fit in my concept of clear distinct forms. I studied the possibilities
of adapting the course of the dikes to the unavoidable shorter span. The
roads division in Brielle and I made a number of variations which would
keep the unity of the canal and its dikes and have the bridge be no more
than a plane across the water - the most elementary structure. Once the
height of the underpasses was fixed, the water level of the canal
necessitated retaining walls to keep the roads dry. That meant that an
arrangement of concrete planes was possible. In compliance with my views
on the road in the surrounding rural landscape, also here I felt the
need to preserve the character of the existing landscape and not adapt
the structures of the bridge and its retaining walls to the lines of the
surroundings. Nor did I want to change the surroundings to accommodate
the bridge. So, I decided to distinguish the structure of the bridge
from its environment, and organize elementary concrete planes in a
perpendicular fashion. Each had to be an autonomous form - a two
dimensional rectangular plane. Only the dimensions and thicknesses were
variable - their juxtaposition had to be intelligible. The axis of the
Dirksland canal changes direction continuously; therefore the formation
had to be adjusted to the direction of the canal and its dikes at this
location. That meant that the road, which had its own course and was not
exactly perpendicular to the axis of the retaining walls, was to cross
the bridge at a slight angle. I decided to use color as a way of
distinguishing the structure from its surroundings. I emphasized the
autonomy of each of the elements by giving it its own color as well as
differentiating the symmetric elements of the bridge to challenge the
programmed way of our interpreting that which we see.
the poplar screens
After crossing the bridge there is a large space on the right, and later
on the left also; I utilized these areas to plant rows of poplar screens
at a sharp angle to the road. The seven screens are only twenty five
meters apart, but because they are placed at the sharp angle to the
road, the actual distance one drives from one screen to the next is
eighty five meters. So the rhythm one sees differs from that which he
perceives. At the end of the stretch of highway, coming from the bridge,
the succession of interspaces between the screens lead to a large shape
-.driving from either direction, a twenty five meter square space,
bounded by poplar trees, acts as a focal point. A small path winds
through it; from it one finds himself in a large volume, opened to the
sky. As the trees grow they at one time will form a cube (I calculate it
will be around 2015)."
Lucien den Arend
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realised page.
web design © Lucien den Arend
Seppäläntie 860
51200 Kangasniemi Finland
telephone +358 44 2641212

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