A WORKER’S ESCAPE
Lodewijk Baljon has created a public garden around a new civic building in the Netherlands, providing employees and commuters with a vibrant green space
Should a new government building have a garden, and one that is freely open to the public? Readers of this magazine will probably say ‘yes’, but that has not been the tradition – and not just because of a lack of money. In the 19th century neo-classical architecture was used to reinforce civic power (grand squares dotted with statues and fountain pools), while in the 20th century a bland and corporate Modernism became the standard style for official buildings, occasionally with a ‘plaza-style’ landscape design attached.
The city of Groningen in the northern Netherlands is demonstrating how different things can be with a large gardenpark set around a striking new building, housing a government tax and education office with 2,700 employees. It is situated at the edge of ancient oak woodland next to a busy ring road, and incorporates well-used commuter walking and cycling routes. The routes taken by the local bird and bat populations have also been protected and enhanced; they were marked on all design plans. It is an actively used and appreciated public space.
Amsterdam-based landscape designer Lodewijk Baljon was commissioned to create this new ‘city garden’ to wrap around the striking, 92m-high main building. In effect he has created not a public park, but a massive garden, planted in the naturalistic style that is now so familiar. As he says, “It’s a public building but it feels like a garden – that has been our aim.”
Any landscape design first had to react to the building itself, with its strident black and white horizontal banding. Lodewijk extended the f luid lines and curves of the architecture into the landscape with sinuous drift plantings and groups of multi-stem Amelanchier x lamarckii, hornbeam and Malus ‘ Evereste’
To continue turn to page 61 Left The garden was designed to incorporate already established walking and cycling routes and even takes into account the flight paths of bats and birds. The green structures are ivy-clad steel-mesh windbreaks. These calm the wind in the garden, making it more peaceful, and provide an architectural foil to the building.