Projected for an island off the Afsluitdijk, the barrier dam between Waddenzee and the former Zuiderzee, is this health resort. Barrier dam and motorway slice through the island tying it to the mainland. Spread across the flat expanse are hills that only when climbed turn out to be buildings. They are bunkers, hidden beneath the grass, reeds and windswept trees. Man made this snippet of land, whereupon nature conquered it and left its marks there. The wind could be seen in the trees; sun, wind and salt weathered the faces of the bunkers. In the landscape, routes emerged along which openness and containment are ever trading places. All these qualities make this area unique. More people should really be enjoying the intriguing game played here with the views of lake, sea, mainland and the visual rhythm of the discharge sluices.

Hence this health resort, whose design does its utmost to leave the area intact. The geometry of the building vies with the ruggedness of the landscape, generating a sense of distance between the two. At the same time, the building resonates with the landscape in that the elements that make this area unique are transmuted into the architecture of the health resort. The intertwinement of nature and building reverberates in the courtyards, in the changing light and the weathering of materials. The route through the building echoes that through the landscape and is marked by the same elements: the flat expanse, the sheltered trench and the surprise at the crossover from one to the other.

The functional portion of the brief - entrance lobby, interview rooms, research labs, restaurant and offices - are on the side facing the lake (IJsselmeer). On the sea side is an 'oasis' containing a heated zone of changing rooms, baths and massage parlours. Embedded in the landscape, the building parts seem to hover above the water, though they are invisible from the road. A passage accessing the hotel rooms strung along it, skewers together the two portions of the health resort. The piers along the passage rise above the landscape, announcing the resort to approaching motorists. They present a new horizon, a measuring line marking out the undulations in the landscape.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architectuur
Tutors: Daan Vitner, Jan Engels & Maarten Meijs