Gateways to Fryslan architecture competition
Client: Province of Fryslan and Foundation Passages
Design: Monolab, team: J.W. van Kuilenburg with P.R. Rzepecki, J. Biedna
Year: 2008

GATEWAYS TO FRYSLAN

…accentuating the access roads with landmarks

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CLOUD AND EARTH

Site A32 Wolvega:
– land reaches up from the water as a terp
– the sky reaches down as a cloud
– terp and cloud together are an amplifier of the senses, mirrored in the water
– the visitor experiences the Frysian landscape deeply

The terp has been shaped as a sloping surface. The slope makes the entrance to the cloud. Inside the cloud an experience space has been excavated.
The void enhances the experiences for the visitors as a sensitive eye. Glass screens protect from falling. The water basin mirrors he complete cloud. The volume of the cloud is made of eight millimeter unfinished aluminum, that needs no maintenance and will not corrode. Within a few months it will become pale grey and it will lighten up in direct sunlight. The cloud will be built like a ship. All connections are welded, grinded and polished to give the skin an abstract finish. In length seven blades take care of the structural span from end to end. The blades are connected by the skin with non visible dot welding. LED lighting is integrated and energy is supplied with integrated and invisible solar panels on the topside. Laminated glass sheets, placed directly inside the aluminum skin, protect the visitors from falling. The cloud is transported in one piece and put on its foundations with a mobile crane.

FRAME

Site A7 Afsluitdijk. A stretched abstract volume is balancing on the Afsluitdam, marking the Frysian border. The volume, a frame suspended over the motorway, rests on top of the dam and has a void for visitors. This big void, an eye, is a carefully designed space that directs and intensifies the senses of visitors through variable panoramas over the water from and towards Fryslan. The topside of the dam marks the entrance with a narrow sloping tube. The same glass screens and aluminum structure are used in this amplifier as well. The free cantilever is carried with a V column.