This design constructs a continuous regional green-blue framework in the area between Rotterdam and The Hague. The scheme has to make manifest the notion of space and at the same time make space for the inevitable urbanization in this area. My strategy is to redefine the concepts of 'town' and 'country', coupling the spatial continuity of the framework to the notion of rural. I have taken the 'country seat' as a building block for the framework. It introduces an altogether different structure with a deviant pattern of colonization. Beyond the regional framework the urbanization process can find its own way.

This Intervening Area constitutes a well-rounded whole within the Delta Metropolis. Its character is defined by water storage and water purification. The water is deployed not only functionally but spatially too, so as to accentuate the Old Dutch landscape of reclaimed lakes and drainage schemes. It therefore constitutes a latter-day continuation of the Dutch struggle against the water. The notion of the genius loci is in perfect keeping with this strategy. Here, the concentrated massing of the country seat is pitted against the great expanse of the landscape.

The country seat as worked up here is a place of residence, with the principles and effect of the water storage and purification exhibited on a number of platforms. These are located in the overstated hall, an 'in-between space' rising up the full height of the building. The country seat's most important component, it conveys a sense of space. Here a lone curving wall confounds the orthogonal grid deriving from the pattern of the polder. Ramps stab through this space, so that one's perception of inside and outside is continually changing.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architectuur & stedebouw
Tutors: Clemens Steenbergen, Max Risselada, Willem Hermans & Henk Mihl