The Netherlands

West 8 urban design & landscape architecture b.v.

Nico Koomanskade 1021
3072 LM Rotterdam
The Netherlands

+31 (0) 10 485 5801

Belgium

West 8 Brussels urban design & landscape architecture bvba

Waaienberg 123
1745 Opwijk
Belgium

+31 (0) 10 485 5801

United States

West 8 urban design & landscape architecture p.c.

2133 Arch Street, Suite 101
Philadelphia, PA 19103
United States of America

+1 347 371 2252

Contrast between fossilized and living nature

VSB Headquarters, Utrecht, NL

Linking and mediating the monumental building with the surrounding ecological park.

The garden of the Provincial House in Utrecht Rijnsweerd, formerly the VSB headquarters, borders the Bloeiendael ecological park.

The basis for the garden design was to raise the plot so that the parking garage beneath the building presents a 1.4 metre high plinth in a green space.  Above a flowering layer of herbaceous plants is a forest of birches, their grid serving to counter the large building. The building’s plinth, clad as it is in tiles, the colour of anthracite with imprints of birch twigs. One of the paths through the ecological park has been extended into the birch forest. From here it crosses a 200 metre long buxus garden using a poetic steel garden bridge with an incorporated bench. The reptilian bridge and a variety of unsubtle red sandstone blocks put the sleek, discreet bank building into perspective.

Client
Verenigde Spaar Bank (VSB)

Partners
Waardenburg and Aronsohn raadgevende ingenieurs b.v.

Imagery
© Jannes Linders