TERPEN (MOUNDS); WAVE, FORT, DUNE & ISLAND
Commissioned by the municipal of Leeuwarden
In the VINEX* district Zuiderburen near Leeuwarden are four contemporary ‘mounds’. An important theme in this assignment was the Frisian landscape that exists of ‘one-fifth land and four-fifth air’.
The slopes in the flat landscape, caused by mounds, are the inspiration for the visual slopes in the flat surface of the mounds in Zuiderburen. A wavy surface is created by shifting the swaying lines just a little bit in respect to each other. But what seems to be high on one side, looks to be low from the other side; high or low, up or down, shore or ditch, these perceptions are all based on the standpoint of the onlooker. This way, various compositions are created that conjure the image of different kinds of landscapes with each their own shape and colour combination.
Four landscapes reference the protection against or the threat from the water; a dune, a wave, an island, and a fort.
Each ‘mound’ represents the primal elements: the dune represents air (wind), the wave represents water, the island represents earth, and the fort represents fire.
Design: 2002
Completion: 2003
Click HERE for a booklet about this project (Dutch)
*VINEX is short for ‘Vierde Nota Ruimtelijke Ordening Extra’, or ‘Fourth Note of Spatial Planning Extra’ and contains the guidelines for the building of new residential areas in the period between 1 January 1995 and 1 January 2005.