Titierk is located in the northern part of the Netherlands, in the province of Friesland - this is a cute, patriarchal village with an old church and a population of just over one and a half thousand people. Its main attraction is the old Veyversburg park, which attracts tourists from all over the country. These are linden alleys, ponds, paths, sculpture - both of the nineteenth century, and of modern masters, and in the center - a villa of the XIX century - the same age as the park. It hosts contemporary art exhibitions and concerts, weddings and outdoor religious services.
Not so long ago, despite the excellent preservation of the park, it was decided to renew it, and for this purpose an international competition was announced. The winner was the Japanese architect Junya Ishigami, who submitted an application together with the Dutch architects STUDIO MAKS. Among the projects of STUDIO MAKS are quarters of the Spanish city of Logroño, residential complexes in Dubai, museums in the Finnish Mänttä and Portuguese Porto. Junya Ishigami is even more famous: in 2010 he received the "Golden Lion" for the best project of the architectural biennale in Venice, and now he is snapped up, including in our country, in connection with the reconstruction of the Polytechnic Museum entrusted to him.
What attracted architectural stars of this magnitude in the Dutch hinterland? Ishigami's recent projects may provide an answer to this question. The architect is most interested in two problems: the interaction of man with nature (he is ready to integrate the latter even into the same Polytechnic Museum) and the expansion of the framework of traditional architecture due to its dematerialization (recall his installation from the woods at the Venice Biennale). And for the solution of these tasks there is no better “laboratory” than the Veyversbürg Park.
One of the main conditions of the competition was the preservation of the historical landscape: the new structures were supposed to magically renew the park and make it suitable for new needs, but in such a way that everything, including the atmosphere, remained in place. Only "non-material" architecture could solve this problem.
Ishigami proposed a multi-part project. In addition to the restoration of the villa, the creation of an open stage and the construction of greenhouses - for the "unique plants of North Holland" for which this park is famous - it includes the construction of a visitor center. This pavilion is the main thing in the project. It is supposed to be built next to the villa, at the intersection of the three main paths of the park. In plan, it will resemble a triangle, one vertex of which will be adjacent to the house, and the other two will be stretched in the manner of sleeves along the paths. Thus, the architecture will repeat the natural landscape. Since the line of the walls will reproduce the lines of the pedestrian paths, there is no question of any direct speech: completely curved lines. The walls of the pavilion will be transparent - this is Ishigami's calling card; as a result, a building of considerable size "dissolves" in the natural environment.
It is planned to complete the modernization of the park in 2014. By the same time, its new part of 15 hectares will be ready: landscape architects LOLA Landscape, Deltavormgroep and Pete Audolf are engaged in its project with the participation of German artist Tobias Reberger: he will decorate the modern territory with his works.
