MSC 1 R&D STUDIO COASTAL QUALITIES

KATWIJK

Ankit Bhargava 4187180 Sept - Nov 2011

AR1U090

urbanism

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Katwijk is a coastal municipality with a popular beach and a thriving residen-tial population. In 1996, Katwijk became one municipality, an amalgamation of 4 villages namely -Katwijk aan Zee, Katwijk a/d Rijn, Rijnsburg, and Valken-burg each being a religious close knit community in itself. Katwijk has seen a considerable growth in population and development in the last 50 years and continues to do so. The project analyses Katwijk as a built urban environment along with its surrounding landscape both urban and rural that have con-stantly shaped Katwijk at both local and regional scale. The coastal landscape as an edge being of particular importance since sea level is projected to rise by .8 - 1.2m. After a general group analysis to point out the issues at hand, the 4 individual projects take it further to diagnose and propose solutions individually of problematique based on separate visions.

The projects retain the overall concerns stipulated by the addition of 20,000 people (1/3 of present population) and need for renewal of coastal defence. Simultaneously they also explore what other developments can be brought about that will improve the built environments for the residents.

IntroductIon

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Analysis

Diagnosis of the Problematique Transport and mobility Open, public and recreational spaces New growth Social Cohesion

Strategies Strategy 1 - River Strategy - Highway Strategy 3 - Coast

Structure plan Regional Plan

contents

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Placement as coastal town Placement in randstad

Katwijk, is situated10 km northwest of Leiden and 16 km north of The Hague, in the province of South Hol-land in the western Netherlands. Katwijk lies on the western part of the Randstad area, the sixth-largest Metropolitan Area in Europe.It also shares its borders with the other municipalities of Noordwijk, Teylingen, Oegstgeest and Wassenaar.

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The problems in Katwijk arise out of the process of development of the city in the last 50 years. The four villages having been independent until 1996, have developed organically as fragmented clusters built with no conscious coher-ence with their surroundings or a larger plan. They have grown to each others boundaries only separated by the apparent natural and urban edges like the river and highway.

Now, having become a single municipality, the peripheral edges of the vil-lages face each other as internal edges in the heart of Katwijk. While the river and highway are the most legible edges, the underlying terrain, the harbour, mismatched transport spines and the large pumping station that provide a completely contrasting scale behave as visual and spatial edges as well. Their porosity and the landscape around defines not only the mobility within and out of Katwijk but how these different communities (villages) interact socially and spatially.

The project addresses this problematique of the edges and how restructuring them can benefit the residents of the municipality.

Project AnAlysIs

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Highway - Converting the highway into an urban boulevard.

River - Developing a new interface and relationship with Katwijk at local and city scale - Creating separate harbours as short term (Leisure harbour) and long term stay (parking lot)

Mobility - Making the river and highway more porous edges, building towards a more non-car efficient space and means of mobility

Landscape - Deals with the aspect of differential scales - neighbourhood and city scale and incorporating making green spaces more usable and accessible

structure PlAn

regIonAl PlAn

This plan investigates into the various elements that make up the larger region and their role in shaping Katwijk. One such element being the highway that can now be seen as a regional corridor. Can it be extended to Noordwijk? What will be the impact of that? Others include the industry that current act as the buffer between leiden and Katwijk.

It also looks at the layers of the Katwijk-leiden Urban scape to investigate whether resistance to growth towards Leiden is the future for Katwijk or merging with Leiden.

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Iss

ue

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isco

vere

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Transport and mobility

- Connectivity problems

- Excessive use of cars

- Parking issues

Lack of open spaces

Inadequacy of infrastructure and facilities

Coastal Defence

Future growth?

Regional Stance and Connections

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city along the highway river citycoastal city residential city Tourist city

DIagnosIng the Problematique

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Leide

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Diagnosing the problematic

Transport | Mobility

Between villages River and highway as major connectivity barriers

Accessibility to industry only through select arteries

Work : to industries around Regional Routes Katwijk - LeidenLeiden - Katwijk - NoordwijkTo Beach by Car, boats

Transport

Leiden to Noordwijk

Industry

Leide

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Beach

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Land transport

Water transportReducing the scale of the harbour within the city and shifting it to the periphery.

Agenda 1

Reduce car use

New harbour

Imagining river edge as a new connec-tion spine. It edges all villages.

Boulevard, Beach : tourist area Discourage parking here

To Noordwijk

Leiden

draw new pedestrian connections

Highway, instead of a pass through needs to become an access corridor It edges Valkenburg, Katwijk a/d Rijn and Katwijk aan Zee

Introduce an alternative transport spine

agenda 1

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Small community parks with play areas for children

Large disconnected green spaces

Green area in court-yards between build-ings used for parking

Plaza near church covered with Parking

Large amount of greening to hide the junction

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Diagnosing the problematique

Recreation Zones, open spaces

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Main access road

Solo standing houses (sprawl-ing landscape in front)Ponds, green space -

not well accessible

13Most of all large sports facilities situated in

the peripheralsWhat to do with the Urban residue?

Acces

sible

green

Small

recre

atio

n par

ks

Unused sp

ace ,

tran

sitio

n green

Dense

wooded

green

, larg

ely in

acce

ssib

le

Campin

g area

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Sports

area

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Lefto

ver o

pen ar

eas

Open sp

aces

and p

lazas

Parkin

g lots

reconnect, reclaim and make accessibleriver as event space

Creating a new dialogue with the river

reclaim fragmented urban residue

convert to leisure Harbour (short stay)Remove disused industrial landscape

reclaim unused green spacenew programme

canal space as Potential new public park ?Domesticate the scale of water and space

Market square, sports amenities

Large fragmented potential green, open space upto the beach

CONNECT across road

Leiden

Historic connection

Improve connection

agenda 2

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+ 5000 hOusEs

new centre ??• Community centre for new residents • New centre to incorporate missing Facilities/amenities • Cut short excessive travel to Leiden

new dialogue between - rijsburg - n206 - new residents

Highway even more important as a traffic corridor

Diagnosing the problematique

new growth

agenda 3 With the new residential blocks to be built on one side of the highway, with Rijsburg on the other, the N206 is absorbed and becomes the central spline, connecting to Leiden. If it is restructured as an urban boulevard programmatic nodes within, it would decrease the pressure on Katwijk aan Zee and Leiden as the two main cores at the two ends.

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Diagnosing the problematique

The problems of social cohesion are born out of the process of cluster growth shaped by the natural and urban barriers.

However social cohesion has become of concern only since the villages have grown to each others bound-aries and amalgamated in 1996 into one municipal-ity and there is significant connectivity problems between places..

As a result, in the case of valuable green spaces, they are disconnected and under used.

This residential municipality likes its villageness. The limited accessibility to areas ( that may be observed in some cases, as poor connectivity) has resulted from quiet private interfaces, while in other cases, its more exposed.

These clusters have given form to pockets of coziness that people associate with, that are quiet and almost private. The river edge is a very good case -

This calls into question public accessibility to public assets. Public interface vs private space.

social Cohesion

observed: lack of public ac-cess, bad connectivity

Private residences, acces-sible public spaces

Municipality as a cluster of private zones

Private interfaces for residents

Quitecalm safeLess cross traffic

social cohesion :Within individual villagesBetween villagesNew residents - katwijk

strong tiesHighway and river as barriers ?

Different kinds of spatial connections with the river

Can city scale public spaces coexist with intimate neighbourhood scale spaces, closeness, while maintaining cultural integrity?

Is the atmosphere of villageness, quietness in conflict with rectifying connectivity issues because they limit mobility to and from all areas?

16Forming Strategies

In these agendas the ‘pain areas’ (the problem areas) all largely lie on the edges. It is these edges - internal and peripheral edges that determine the coherence and cohesion of the cluster development.

So, to fulfill the agenda, the strat-egies examine claosely these various typologies of edge conditions - the RIVER, the HIGHWAY and the COAST and suggest newer relationships that can improve the built environment for visitors and locals alike.

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Strategy 1RIVER AND HARBOUR AREA

Strategy 2 HIgHwAy CORRIDOR

Strategy 3 COAstAl DEfENCE

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• Draw new pedestrian connections • Highway, an access corridor connecting Valkenburg, Katwijk a/d Rijn and Katwijk aan Zee• Highway as an Urban Boulevard

• River as Event space, creating a new dialogue with the river• Introduce an alternative transport spine for pedestrians and bicyclists• Improve cross connectivity • New green network, to connect with inner areas of the city• Reconnect, reclaim and make accessible fragmented urban residue

• Creation of Leisure Harbour (Short stay) Remove disused industrial landscape• Potential New public park in the inlet harbour? Domesticate the scale of water and space

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sTRaTegy 1

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River as Event space. Creating a new dialogue with the river

Introducing an alternative transport spine for pedestrians and bicyclists

Improve cross connectivity

New green network, along river edges to connect with inner areas of the city

Reconnect, reclaim and make accessible fragmented urban residue

Creation of Leisure Harbour (Short stay)

Removal of disused industrial landscape

Potential New public park in the inlet harbour?

Domesticate the scale of water and space

River and Harbour area1

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analysis of the River edge

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Morphology (surrounding landscape) and Connections Typology of zones on the river

Zone

Zone

Zone

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Harbour area, pumping station, and holds large discon-nected green zones. it is the transitional space between the two residential areas in Katwijk aan Zee that lie on either side of the bank. This are has the greatest potential for development nt only because of the scale of space avail-able but its proximity to the beach, easy accessibility from the traffic arteries.

This zone has Rijsburg on one side of the river and industrial landscape on the other.

This zone, the river edge is largely populated with resi-dences facing the river, with industries, and a sports field in some part.

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Pumping station area

Residential buildings

Green zone with Bike path

Transition green space

Villas that block view and access

to river edge

Swimming pool

Market plaza

Ponds

Inlet harbour

80s Residential Areas

50-60s Residential

Building

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Conceptual Plan

critical detail 3Landscape proposal for the pumping station area facing Katwijk aan Zee

critical detail 2Proposal for restructur-ing the inlet harbour and disused industrial area.

critical detail 1Spatial Proposal for the new park encompassing the exist-ing public amenities like the market and sports facilities

Sports area merged with newly developed green zones displacing the industries alongside the river

new Harbour (Long Stay)To act like the parking lot for boats

new road parallel to the river edge for people from Rijsburg to go the industry instead of taking the highway

Landscape edge, to cut off view to the industries

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Existing Road Situation Proposed Road Situation

The harbour road becomes a pri-mary artery, thus INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY AND VISIBILITY to the new harbour development.

New bridge over the river con-necting sports to the redeveloped industrial area

new bridge

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Existing Layers of the landscape

Stand alone houses

Ponds, green space, Market, public buildings

50-60’s Row Houses

Rhine River

Existing Situation

Layers of Zone 1

stand alone villas

70s Housing

70s Housing

Inlet harbour

Industrial buildingsHarbour

City scale

Neighbourhood scale

Zone 1

analysis

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Existing Proposed

New pedestrian & bike bridges

Harbour, river side

Residential side

New Development

Historic connection to the beach

This is the main traffic artery going to the inner city and the beach. This road is very wide and has a high green bund on one side with single houses perched on top while it has spaces like the market, sports facilities on the other. The pro-posal is to remove the high car traffic and use the excellent landscaping and programmatic features around to create an intimate green lung, which stretches till the inner city.

Zone 1

Critical Detail 3

Proposed scheme

Central green Lung

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Existing

Overall space : - The defunct industrial buildings must be moved out so it can make place for much craved public open space.

Water : - Retained as a historic memory. - Broken into smaller parcels creating new play spaces and a variety of relationships with water.

Inlet Canal

High point affords large expansive views of the landscape below

Pumping station

Critical Detail 2:

Inlet Harbour

Disused industrial Landscape residential buildings with an arcade and shops, cafes in front

Existing

Proposed

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Lower Terrain Higher terrain

Parking

exposing the terrain to capitalise on the views available from the few high points looking at the expanse of the harbour and river landscape

Early Experiments with Montages

existing canal replaced with a canal in rotterdam

introducing a large undu-lating green space with pockets of water

Looking away from arcade Looking towards the arcadeexisting

existing

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Green spacesused as parking lots

Awkward out of scale green expanse

Panoramic view of the sea and much enjoyed public space

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Road - shifted towards the river edgeGreen landscape - absorbed as part of housing block to form open spaces, parksParking - provided in patches along the road

Existing Proposed Existing

Proposal 1

Proposal 2

Critical Detail 3:

Pumping station area

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sTRaTegy 2

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HighwayDraw new pedestrian connections

Highway, an access corridor connecting Valkenburg, Katwijk a/d Rijn and Katwijk aan Zee

Highway as an Urban Boulevard -

- Downgrading the highway

- Increase accessibility, pass through

- Removing unnecessary infrastructure

Reclaiming unused transitional landscape to become a part of larger urban boulevard

Use this corridor to draw new improved connections and insert programmes within this

green belt

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Highway as a sparsely porous edge/barrier Between 3 villages - rijnsburg, katwijk a/d Rijn and Valkenburg

Highway as a strong traffic corridor continuing on from Leiden to Noordwijk

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Case study

Vlissingen

Vlissingen has a green belt cutting through the residential areas. It contains sports fields, parks and residential development is on both sides.

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N2

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Residential

Residential

analysis

Road Network and crossings/ bridges Morphology

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analysis

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Industries ‘Big Box’

Residential

Dune Landscape

Polder Landscape

Green Houses

Diagram illustrates the mismatch of highway and surrounding landscape

Strategy 2

Proposal for urban Boulevard

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Downgrading the highway

Increase accessibility, pass through

Removing unnecessary infrastructure

Reclaim unused transitional landscape to a part of larger urban boulevard

Use this corridor to draw new improved connections and insert programmes within this green belt

Proposed

Existing

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Bicycling paths

Landscape

Bicycling path

Parks, facilities

Light rail

Road

Proposed

Existing

Layers of the NEW URBaN BOULEvaRD

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sTRaTegy 3

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sTRaTegy 3 Coastal Defence

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The beach is regarded by people of Katwijk as the municipality’s most attractive fea-ture.

The beach is more or less an independent space, while the city forms the backdrop with a few programmatic nodes like cafes and restaurants on the boulevard contrib-uting actively.

If we go 1 block behind the boulevard, the beach is not visible. However, its the sensation of the proximity of the beach, the scale that creates the atmosphere. The fact that the beach is so accessible unlike the case in Schevenningen, it is therefore unique offering a distinct character.

The sea level is projected to rise between .8 - 1.2 m and to be safe in the future there is a need to reinforce the coastal defence. The new defence will not only redefine the city-coast relationship but also the spatial quality of the beach having a direct impact on the tourism economy.

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Existing

Existing Section

Existing Elevation

case study coastal edges Rijkswaterstaat Noordwijk Westkapelle

Scenario 1 - Coastal Protection as parabolic dune Unlike a blank high barrier this allows views to the sea in perspective while still providing defence

Strategy 3

Proposal for Coastal Defence

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Scenario 2 - If a new building edge is created

Scenario 2.1 - Porous Building edge

Scenario 3North and South ends being the higher terrains, the low central part can be raised to the same level and underneath we can have parking or shopsThis way the beach does not need to get extended.

case study : Vlissingen coastal edge

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If the sea level keeps rising, is the solution to keep raising the dyke higher or build higher dunes as protection?

Is there another way?

And even then what if in a storm it is breached?

Can we use the 50 years ahead, until when the present coastal defence is sufficient to prepare the landscape to absorb the water overflow instead of constantly building higher defences to cut the water out?

What can we do with sea water, once its in?

Can it become a part of the urban landscape? A Venice landscape?

Sea water mixing with river water??

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In this scheme we introduce a canal net-work. as a water network. We replace some vehicular arteries with canals and make them pedestrian. Further as the terrain becomes lower using the natural gradient, we connect it to the dune landscape and the lower harbour region, which are made into a large catchment basin. The industrial landscape in the harbour is displaced and allowed to flood.

In this case, we won’t need to build as high a dyke as presently assumed earlier. In fact in the event of a rare super storm water is all held back, it is allowed to tip over to some extent, which is channelized into these canals.

This scheme questions the need to address natural processes through the act of building higher hard bar-riers instead of building a adaptive landscape.

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sTRuCTuRaL VIsIon

Industries

Polder Landscape

Green Landscaping

Residential

Dune Landscape

Built Programme

Green Landscaping + Public Functions

Green Landscaping + Built Programme

Green Landscaping

New harbour

Highway - Converting the highway into an urban boule-vard with programmatic nodes.

River - Developing a new interface and relationship with Katwijk at local and city scale - Creating separate harbours as short term (Leisure harbour) and long term stay (parking lot)

Mobility - making the river and highway more porous edges, building a non-car efficient space and means of mobility

Landscape - dealing with the aspect of differential scales - neighbourhood and city scale and incorporating making green spaces more usable and accessible

RegIonaL PLan

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Industries

Polder Landscape

Green Landscaping corridors

Residential

Dune Landscape

This plan investigates into the various elements that make up the larger region and their role in shaping Katwijk. One such element being the highway that can now be seen as a regional corridor. Can it be extended to Noordwijk? What will be the impact of that? Others in-clude the industry that current act as the buffer between leiden and Katwijk.

It also looks at the layers of the Katwijk-leiden Urban scape to investigate whether resistance to growth towards Leiden is the future for Katwijk or merging with Leiden..