1991 - 1994
Kromhoutpark
1991 - 1994
Kromhoutpark
Tilburg’s Kromhoutpark is possibly Bureau B+B’s most controversial design. A discussion held at the Netherlands Architecture Institute in 1991 elicited such reactions as: ‘a low centre in a staggeringly high space’, ‘overly ambitiously demonstrated designing talent’, ‘a design as complex as it is simple’ and ‘a postmodern park’.
Location
Tilburg
Client
Gemeente Tilburg
Year
1991 - 1994
Surface Area
30 ha
The Municipality of Tilburg commissioned Bureau B+B to design a new urban park on the site of a former barracks near the old city centre. The absence of a programme prompted the firm to embark on an extensive study into the meaning of the modern urban park, leading the designers to conclude that a park was no longer a green oasis in a stony environment, a kind of contour jig for the city, but a green component that lives in symbiosis with the city, and which, just as modern life itself, provides a sufficient range of activities to choose from.
The concept for Kromhoutpark consists of a chamber within a chamber: the large chamber is formed by the existing square of linden trees, while the small chamber is arranged as a pond surface with a thick frame of high bamboo. Traditional park elements were made into routes that also traverse the water’s surface: a climbing and clambering line, a pergola line, an art line and a water line. The design was elaborated employing a computer visualization that functioned as a decomposition of the park’s different elements.
