ARCHITECTURAL FOCUS
The green valley between the towers
The design of KJ is the result of the limitations of the place itself. Two residential towers of ninety meters on an urban L-shaped plinth flank the square. Their cascading silhouette is a direct result of the insolation studies: the volumes slope so that sun continues to reach the square and the Koekamp. This logic gave rise to‘ the green valley’: a cascade of spacious collective terraces that nestles between the towers. With a rich variety of trees and plants, DELVA Landscape Architecture has created green places where residents can meet, relax and enjoy the panoramic view of the city.
New urban living in The Hague
Fluted columns of lightweight concrete give the facades a vertical direction that is in line with the stately and largely classic and postmodern highrise architecture of the CID in The Hague. Anodised aluminium frames, loggias and balconies refine the image and open up living to the city. Blast furnace cement has reduced the CO 2 emissions of the concrete by approximately 450,000 kilos. The 390 homes are divided between owner-occupied, private sector and social rent.
Living at the station attracts residents of all kinds, and there are no car parking spaces. And the place literally keeps room for what is to come: part of the ground floor remained free of columns and foundations for a possible expansion of the RandstadRail, with large steel trusses that support the structure over this zone.
Under the ceiling of peace On the ground floor, a new station entrance connects the square with The Hague Central Station. A doublecurved, undulating wooden ceiling of 9,000 m ² is an echo of the dune landscape of The Hague and smoothly frames the view of the greenery of De Koekamp upon arrival. Almost 16,000 gold letters have been mounted in the wood: the full text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, arranged as a world map. Anyone who enters the city of peace and justice walks underneath it.
Designed for people Together with DELVA, the square will be greened and connected to the Koekamp, with a restaurant pavilion as a new public destination. In this way, the place that was conceived from infrastructure ends up as a place for people. The Koningin Julianaplein is no longer a space that you rush through, but the place where The Hague begins and where you want to stay for a while.
www. powerhouse-company. com Photos: Sebastian van Damme
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