Biceps is a scheme to redevelop an old marshalling yard and a depot workshop in the centre of Amersfoort. It is informed by a configuration of my own making that ensues from the ambience on site. The presence of the trains, tracks and railway noises in the town are a central feature of the scheme, and have incited a new reading of the place. Consequently the proposed layout is the very opposite of most plans, aimed as these are at maximizing the yield.

Biceps consists of five component parts: a leisure park, carriage homes, sheds for recreation and dwelling, a residential quarter and a mobile home-town. Through this combination of urban programme components, aspects characteristic of the area are retained and enhanced.

At the scale of the town, birches that have sprung up between the rails present a new leisure park for Amersfoort. The green wedge forges a recreational link between the heart of the town and the greenspace of Utrechtse Heuvelrug, the ridge of hills passing between Utrecht and Amersfoort.

The leisure programme is supplemented with large-scale peripheral recreational functions including a sports megastore housed in the old sheds. A new main road redresses the area's isolated position, tying the site to the urban ring road and to the new motorway to the west of the town.

At the scale of the place, the already exceptional ambience of the site has been enhanced. The old overhead cables receive a new use conveying the wires and ducting to the nomadic dwellings in the marshalling yard. These units offer a great deal of freedom to their inhabitants. Here they can shake off the rules and conventions of the modern town.

Large residential sheds on the edge of the grounds accommodating a wide range of use forms and dwelling typologies, heighten the polarity on site. These sheds contrast with the sea of low-rise homes plus garden in the adjacent residential quarter and with the long strips of nomadic units.

A new dynamic has been added to the 17-hour town of dwelling, work and recreation. The railway tracks can carry mobile carriage homes, a new type of camping which has the potential to expand into a European network of marshalling yard campsites. They present new lines of movement. All in all, it makes for a special place in the town - public and vibrant.

Place of education: AvB Amsterdam
Specialization: stedebouw
Tutors: Pieter Jannink, Harm Veenenbos & Simone Drost