Meinerswijk is sited in the flood plains of the Lower Rhine across from the old centre of the city of Arnhem. Its green environment, size2 and central position make it an attractive area. The high costs and the risks of building on this green foreland have preserved it from the drive to expand the city. Post-war colonization of the south bank passed by the green enclave and the interest shown in it by developers in the past decades has had no consequences as yet. Left idle, the site has become a melting pot of cultural, scientific and erotic experiences. Relations between the heterogeneous group of users are forged by an unwritten, self-regulating system. Is this what Foucault meant by a 'heterotopia of compensation'?3 Considering the vested interests and the investments already made, it is naive to think that this 'status aparte' will persist. On the other hand, the current peripheral character of Meinerswijk has become part of the corporate identity of Arnhem. How to define a plan without neglecting either aspect? The proposal consists of turning Meinerswijk into a production park of willow wood. Various willow cultures are planted following the soil structure to create an ever-changing, colourful wooded island in the heart of the city. The sale of coppice wood provides income for the project. The park is accessible to recreationists all year round. Multiple production facilities have been designed to cultivate the park. Utilizing the remains of an old slipway, a central depot has been erected where the harvest is gathered and distributed. A network of smaller satellite factories installed in the park is used for pre-treatment and temporary storage of the coppice wood.4 Outside the pruning season, the depot and factories stand empty. But by granting public access, the abandoned facilities can be utilized for the benefit of summer visitors in various ways. This new public duty benefits the park as an integrated part of the people's landscape.


1 The word Poliphili, derived from the novel Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, is used in the project's title to mean 'lover of many', as suggested in Godwin's introduction. Francesco Colonna, Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, trans. Jocelyn Godwin, New York: Thames & Hudson, 1999.
2 740 acres: 1.8 times the size of New York's Central Park
3 '... their role is to create a space that is other, another real space, as perfect, as meticulous, as well arranged as ours is messy, ill constructed, and jumbled.' Michel Foucault, 'Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias'. Retrieved 15.06.06 from www.foucault.info.
4 The structure formed by smaller, function-specific satellite units ranged round a central depot has a predecessor: Meinerswijk was once the domain of a network of simple standardized bunkers and battle stations, together forming the IJssel River Defence Line. The remnants are acknowledged and embedded unaltered in the new intervention.