Jan van Grunsven, Arno van der Mark
Schenkkade Den Haag
Jan van Grunsven and Arno van der Mark's proposal for the Schenkstrook was chosen from a number of sketch plans that were developed at the request of of Ed 't Hoen from the REO municipal services and included those of Onno Dirker, Erick de Lyon, Urs Pfannenmüller, Linda Pollack and David Veldhoen.
The artists
developed their plan in collaboration with the City Office of Urban
Development. Van Grunsven and Van der Mark noticed that the course of
the Schenkstrook area, running from the center along office buildings
to the green edge of the city, had a range of atmospheres. They wanted
to emphasize that in their plan for redevelopment. They chose the
middle, between the Prinses Beatrixlaan and the Wilhelmina van
Pruisenweg, as the area where they wanted to create an emphatically
different form; albeit with existing elements available for road and
park construction.
Through their efforts, this piece of road (with
a length of 241 meters or 301 steps) makes its mark by a slight change
of level and blue street lighting at night (Daylight/Tungsten).
The
green area of the banks has been widened to twice its size, while the
single lane road with adjacent bike and pedestrian lanes has been
reduced to one clear, hard asphalt surface. Nature and city lie sharply
contrasted next to each other without any soft transition area between
traffic and greenery. Thanks to the artists' endeavours, the visual
arts have become an equal partner in this public space.
See also
Exposition Metacity (1998/99)
- 1998