Regional design

Stelling van Amsterdam

H+N+S designed a spatial strategy for the Stelling van Amsterdam – the Amsterdam Defense Line. This is a 135 km line of fortresses and water structures firming a wide circle around the city of Amsterdam. The motto for the H+N+S project was “A Tranquil Route in the Hectic Metropolis”. The Stelling van Amsterdam was a military structure built around the city in the late nineteenth century. The capital had to be defended even after all further outlying defenses had fallen. An ingenious system of forts, dykes, watercourses and sluices made it possible to inundate large areas of land, making them impassable for enemy troops, without breaching the dykes.

The Necessity of Gardening

H+N+S designed a regional planning strategy for the Green Heart of Holland. The Green Heart is a rural area in the densely populated western part of the Netherlands. It is surrounded by some of Holland’s largest cities, which together make up the conurbation widely known as Randstad Holland: the cities of Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht.

Going with the flow towards a new watersystem for Randstad Holland

H+N+S worked on a study for the renewal of the surface water system of Randstad Holland. The work resulted in a model for the Randstad which was presented in the “Water Biennale”, the second International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam. The following text gives an impression of the design thinking.

Route design A4

The construction and modification of the transport infrastructure is more often surrounded with embarrassment than with pride. Rijkswaterstaat, the section of the Dutch ministry of transport concerned with roads and waterways, hopes to correct this tarnished image with its Route Design strategy. The goal of Route Design is to develop a coherent vision for motorways, for the environment and for the relations between them.

Dyke Improvement

H+N+S prepared a design for a twenty-kilometre river dyke along the River Waal, for which an asymmetrical and concave cross-section was devised. The design's asymmetry is brought to life by means of a 'wet' marshy base at the foot of the outer slope as a transitional zone before the natural areas in the floodplain. A raised mowing path marks the boundary between the inner slope and the cultivated area.

Plan Ooievaar

The Ooievaar Plan was the winning plan at the Eo Wijers competion in 1986. The name ‘Ooievaar’ (‘Stork’ ) was chosen as the pseudonym reference to the essentials of the plan.