Op een onbewoond eiland
Design contest Sluiseiland, Architectuurcentrum Gouda, 2007, third prize
i.c. Gerjan Westendorp
With the development of the Zuidplaspolder in the lowest part of Holland, far below sealevel Gouda expands its boundaries and spills over its natural safe borders. In this planned archipelago of artificiality the desire for places that are ' different ' will increase. We call this yearning the 'dreaming about uninhabited islands’. Uninhabited islands as a universal metaphor for a romantic desire for freedom. The illusion of freedom as a counterpart of the organised and cultivated of an urban area such as Gouda and the zuidplaspolder.
Our design for the Sluiseiland (lock island) can be one of those ' uninhabited islands '. A physical, but also mental, counterbalance against the increasingly expanding sea of pre-programmed and fixed urbanity. A haven for those who desire freedom but are caught up by the expanding city. Similar to the meaning of famous dutch places such as hoogte 80 in Arnhem or the former island Schokland that is now part of the new polderlandscape of the Dutch Flevopolder.
It is precisely the future location of the island in the middle of the city instead of its current position on the cities edge that makes the potency of the island evident. Because it also functions as a crucial intersection in the web of regional road and nautical network, a new urban icon is a strategic intervention. The narrow strip of private functions turns into a free accessible rugged mountain in the middle of a broadend riverbed. The islandmountain is a beacon in the skyline of Gouda and the Zuidplaspolder. Innocent in his everyday use but menacing in its deeper meaning. A modern flight Hill for if the pumps no longer function ... ...
It is precisely the future location of the island in the middle of the city instead of its current position on the cities edge that makes the potency of the island evident. Because it also functions as a crucial intersection in the web of regional road and nautical network, a new urban icon is a strategic intervention. The narrow strip of private functions turns into a free accessible rugged mountain in the middle of a broadend riverbed. The islandmountain is a beacon in the skyline of Gouda and the Zuidplaspolder. Innocent in his everyday use but menacing in its deeper meaning. A modern flight Hill for if the pumps no longer function ... ...
