The regional component of the design sets out to attract new inhabitants to the former peat districts of Drenthe. This strategy is prompted by the growing dissatisfaction with the urbanizing of the Hondsrug, the ridge of hills reaching from Groningen to Emmen, and the lack of perspective for agriculture in the old peatlands. The present plan therefore seeks to reorganize the peat district by redesigning the landscape on a major scale to makes space for a 'free-form' urbanization. The strategy consists of using woods and water to design a number of sites, each with its own development potential. In the built development sites future inhabitants have great freedom in giving shape to their own living situation. This is with regard to the size of plot, the architecture, the building height and the choice of colours and materials. One condition is that the houses must be ground-accessed, with plots 50 cm higher than the surrounding land. The sunken space and the slope are sown with a mix of grasses and flowers. The landscape sites present a framework of woods and water. While part of this does have great development potential, stricter rules for building obtain here than at the development sites. At the agricultural sites the farming aspect is uppermost, and at the nature development sites nature is developed on a large scale. Finally, there are a number of prime sites in the Hunzedal, the river valley east of the Hondsrug.

The planning area divides into three subareas. In each of these, the sites have their own spatial form. There is a wooded perimeter and an arcuated ribbon for linear peat developments at the crossover between valley floor and slope; woods and belts of water for developments with single and double channel systems; and bastions with a wall of trees framed by a moat for block peat developments. The second of these subareas, (Drentse Monden) has been fleshed out. Supplementary landscape needs injecting there at a micro planning level. The solution lies in the village greens of the former peat-diggers' settlements, large expanses of grass edged by poplars. The built development site of Nieuw-Buinen has been worked out in detail, deploying the grass strips as public-space capillaries in the freely expanding site.

Place of education: LU Wageningen
Specialization: landscape architecture
Tutors: Klaas Kerkstra, Peter Vrijlandt & Eric Luiten