De Hollandse Kustplaats

The Dutch coast has to be strengthened by sand nourishments because of a rising sea level. The main coastal villages located along a the so called Hollandse Kustboog, which are confronted with this problem are Katwijk aan Zee Noordwijk-, en Egmond. A significant part of these villages can be characterized as outdated in their urbanistic and architectural setup. Can we use the process of coastal improvement to transform these villages by smart urban interventions and to rethink and improve the connection between city and sea?

The Dutch Government appointed a 'Delta Committee, the Sustainable Coastal Development Committee, with the mandate to formulate a vision and come up with recommendations on the long-term protection of the Dutch coast. The Delta Committee argues that the current standards of flood protection are not being met everywhere. The coast has to be enforced with sand supplementations. By depositing extra sand, the coastal system will naturally grow en be enforced. Some crucial locations will be enforced by enlarging the existing dunes.

For each village the specific relationship between the sea and it's hinterland is analyzed and used to implement specific proposals which use existing qualities. Possible combinations with other urgent problems/developments around the coastal villages were investigated. At Noordwijk the relationship of horeca, boulevard and beach was explored, in Egmond we investigated the possible restructuring of postwar housing while at Katwijk we took a closer look at the relationship between the Oude Rijn, the boulevard and the sea.

Noordwijk-, Egmond- en Katwijk aan Zee, commissioned by Atelier Kustkwaliteit, icm XML architecture, landscape architecture, dike reinforcement, coastal reinforcement, Flux landscape architecture, Utrecht, 2012