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Architects: Bureau B+B
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Photographs:Bastiaan Kwast
Text description provided by the architects. Scheybeek rises in the inner dunes near Heemskerk. The lower reaches of the stream, made visible in the park, culminates in the Noordzeelanaal. The natural level of the brook lies about 30 cm. above ground level, approximately one metre above the level of the ditches in the surrounding polder. This artificial situation offers opportunities for nature and recreation, as well as being the starting point for the park design.
The brook has been staged together with the new pedestrian and bicycle paths in the extended spaces in the park. A game of meeting and disappearing takes place between the visitor and the stream. The stream’s profile is composed from a specially designed concrete element and a natural embankment. Due to extra supplies of water, the brook regularly overflows its banks. The parts of the brook that have been widened function as fishpond, water garden and baby pool.
Children are challenged to build dams with the boulders in the brook. ‘Natural variation’ is in part the result of human intervention. The brook flowing into the Noordzeekanaal is the main focus in the park. The sweet brook water flows out into a pond of brackish Noordzee water at the bottom of the dike. Water in the pond can flow freely from or to the Noordzeekanaal. The unique salinity originating from this exchange of water is the perfect place for flora and fauna specific to brackish water.
