Drive-in Nature is a way of getting to experience the wonders of nature from the comfort of your car. This is the 'fast-food' nature city-dwellers have come to expect. Drive-in Nature is also about resolving the seemingly contradictory notion that mobility and technology are incompatible with experiencing nature.

Its brief is to strengthen the landscape of the river Rotte into a cohesive network of parks with a strong identity and good accessibility. The intention is to develop a landscape underlay that can accept new forms of leisure. The Rotte landscape is transformed from an assemblage of recreation zones into a single park system, an urban park of stature. Its edges are shifted as far as they will go, extended the park to the limit. Leisure hubs in the north and south will stitch the park to the inner urban area. To scale up the landscape and create greater coherence, the north-south orientation of long lines can be enhanced by strengthening large landscape entities or introducing new ones. These landscape entities create extra bonding with the urban fabric by catering to regional needs. Thus, for example, the glass acts as mega solar panels for the city, the adventure valley as the Netherlands' principal deposit of sludge and rubble, and the polders as major water retention sites. A high-profile country estate realized at the wood's edge will house recreational enterprises in the region. Proceeding from this edge, the historical structure of lateral links will be fortified into solid lanes of trees and bushes accessing and modelling the park. Given the park's new format, a connecting route especially for car drivers will be required in addition to the existing slow traffic artery along the Rotte. More than just a connection between places and parties, the new route is a ring round the Rotte that welds it all together. This Rotte Ring brings urban public space into the green setting, it is about experiencing the natural surroundings from your car. You can cruise along the water, autocross through the mud, drive through the hills and ascend to the highest point for a panoramic view. But it is not only about movement. The parking lots along the road are ideally sited and fitted out for motorists as the new urban public space. This does mean paid parking. But in return you can enjoy places of natural beauty that are clean, safe and with all modern conveniences.

Place of education: Wageningen University
Specialization: landscape architecture
Tutors: Paul Roncken, Sander Klaassen