year: 2010
client: Royal Intitute of Dutch Architects (BNA)
site: Markt, Hengelo, the Netherlands
commission type: competition entry
team: Marc van Asseldonk, Auguste van Oppen
The trauma of the Allied bombardments of 1944 causes Hengelo to have an ambivalent relationship with its past. After the destruction, an uncompromising faith in the future remained the only real perspective for this city in the east of The Netherlands. Combined with a nostalgic longing for a lost collective history, this unremitting progressive attitude has tarnished the significant achievements of the city’s post-war reconstruction architecture. In Bischoff, the buildings around which architect Wil van Couwelaar composed his post-war reconstruction scheme, are emphasised to make the city dweller conscious once more of this part the city’s history. Since the war, Dutch city centres have developed into regionally attracting shopping centres, leading to the inevitable and significant increase in value of retail space. The asymmetrical relationship between the value of retail and residential space has led to the decreasing significance of city centres as residential environments and to the dominance of nationally operating retail concepts in the streetscape. In Bischoff, the addition of two public spaces filters urban conditions from the regionalised shopping street to the privacy of the dwelling. Hence the opportunity arises for the creation of a comfortable residential, commercial and recreational environment. The new route acts as a catalyst for the transformation of the clogged up courtyards into an intimate and informal place with ample space for local residents and shopkeepers. The secluded urban garden on top of the Bischoff building offers the city dweller the opportunity to escape the hectic nature of the city. Bischoff pursues the symbiosis between the post-war reconstruction legacy of Hengelo and the future spatial challenge for Dutch city centres. A new relationship is thus made between the Hengelo’s history and its undying optimism for the future.
