Constructed wetland and aeration Westergasfabriekpark Amsterdam The Netherlands

Description

Constructed wetland and aeration Westergasfabriekpark Amsterdam The Netherlands

Samenvatting (Dutch description)

Size: 11,500 m2 Status: Completed Project Design: 1997 - 2000 Project Realisation: 2000 - 2001 Address: Isaac Gosschalklaan, Polonceaukade, Klönneplein, Pazzanistraat, Amsterdam, the Netherlands Client: Stadsdeel Westerpark, Amsterdam; Projectgroep Westergasfabriek; MAB bv, the Hague.

The Cultuurpark Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam can be considered a masterpiece among the case studies where the water–soil dialectic is deeply expressed. This intervention recapitulated the advancements in these fields of study from the 1970s and 1980s, projecting them into the future. At the same time, it clearly illustrates the importance of landscape architecture as the main driving force behind a process of regeneration of a disused and degraded industrial area, where the project represents an evolutionary phenomenon that is still ongoing today [22]. 2.1. A History of Urban Regeneration through Landscape Design The intervention tells the story of the site and its transformation, from a disused space to a place of high urban sustainability and sharing. Even before the beginning of the work, it was considered an exemplary case in the creation of urban attractors and in the strategies dedicated to the creation of cultural clusters [23]. The area was a former gas production plant built at the end of the 19th century and abandoned in 1967. The site had become central in relation to the urban core, but was nevertheless excluded for a long time from public use and redevelopment processes. This separation was partly due to the high level of soil pollution, to the extent that it was internationally considered a controversial hotspot. Furthermore, it was rejected for having long been the site of different occupation phenomena, with cultural initiatives taking place alongside illegal activities. To the East, the Westergasfabriek Park is connected with a 19th-century five hectares park, the Westerpark; to the West, with the Tuinpark Nut en Genoegen, a garden-city with socialist imprint. Settled on a polder in 1909, this latter area is structured with a network of canals, small houses, and private and shared gardens. Today the Westergasfabriek, together with the Westerpark and the connected wetland, forms a system of about 50 hectares of an urban park (Figure 1). From its closure in 1967 to the decision in 1992 on an international competition for the creation of a park, this area has always been at the center of the administration’s attention [22].

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climatescan

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• first_page settings Order Article Reprints Open AccessArticle Re-Inventing Water–Ground Relations in Landscape Architecture
• mecanoo: Westergasfabriek-Terrain