Europan 12 Netherlands | Ilario Tassone

The Concept The Idea behind the project proposal for the new master plan of the Havenkwartier in Assen has as principal target the transformation of an industrial area into a new urban centrality, able to start new processes of social structure through the urban transformation. The project takes into account the possibility to make private investment, instead of the public ones, the agent of future development in the next coming years. The entire project was done with an intention of simplicity and clarity, with a goal in our mind to make a completely new layout, capable to adapt to different uses that accomplish the different possible interpretations of Havenkwartier, the project is structured , for this reason, to offer several different sceneries from the urban park to the social housing , from the tourist dock and the leisure facilities or sport activities to the high and low density inhabited areas. We propose, therefore, a simple and regular settlement pattern, divided into functional parcel, that allows our project to be developed at different times, creating inside of it a sort of hierarchy both on the spatial and on the functional side. The dominant element inside the project, is the navigable waterway system, that characterize the entire masterplan, and make it clearly linked to the nature of Assen’s territory. In fact the water generates the appearance of the site plan identifying the great rectangular shaped central area. This are is configured as a great navigable urban park, rich of green spaces, leisure areas, accommodation businesses and residential areas of great values; in this urban structure designed by the water, are positioned the two particular building requested by Europan, that, following the precepts of the contest, are configured as important exceptions, both at urban scale and at the architectonic one. Two important aspects taken into account during the preparation of the project was the financial and environmental aspects, from the financial point of view, as already said, the decision to divide the intervention areas in functional parts that could be realized at different times; from the environmental point of view particular attention has been paid to the reduction of the environmental impact using renewable energy and cutting the energy requirements using construction techniques with low impact and high energy efficiency. Behind its simplicity, the project addresses with particular attention the problematic intrinsically related to urban complexity, to both the vehicular accessibility and bicycle or pedestrian path, to the optimal accessibility of the public spaces and the private housing, and finally to local facilities and accommodation businesses. Particular attention was addressed, in addition, to the landscape design that aim to reinterpret and synthetize the Dutch landscape. A sort of Complex-Simplicity, therefore, that try to combine architecture and landscape in an urban synthesis.