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Architects: Royal HaskoningDHV
- Area: 15000 m²
- Year: 2016
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Photographs:Luuk Kramer, Onsite Photography
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Manufacturers: Franke, Geberit, Franke and Sphinx, Metadecor, Sphinx, Struyk Verwo, VetroTech Saint-Gobain, WPS Parking Systems
Text description provided by the architects. The new underground parking garage in Katwijk aan Zee is the result of a multifaceted commission granted to Royal HaskoningDHV by the Municipality of Katwijk. Royal HaskoningDHV is responsible for the architectural design of the underground parking and translated this design into a Building Quality Plan. Based on this Building Quality Plan, Ballast Nedam, in cooperation with ZJA, engineered the integral design (architectural, functional, structural and installation) for the realization of the parking garage.
The Building Quality Plan includes detailed information, definitions, drawings and visualizations of the architectural design, the layout of the garage, the public entrances, the entrance‐ and exit ways for vehicles, the emergency exits, as well as the architectural design and guidelines of the signage (routing, orientation and identification).
The architectural design of the parking garage builds forth on the Design of Katwijk’s Public Space, developed by OKRA Landscape Architects, and respects and adheres to its conditions.
The parking garage is part of Kustwerk Katwijk, a project which seeks to protect the coastline of Katwijk aan Zee in the Netherlands. The design team of this coast protection project took an integrated and multi‐disciplinary approach to this project, taking into considerations the need for defensive coastal protection, functional parking requirements as well as the desire for a landscape design which is related to its coastal environment.
Location
The underground parking garage holds 663 parking spots, hidden inside sand dunes along the coastline of Katwijk aan Zee. The location of the parking garage, in between the newly built town’s dike and the boulevard of Katwijk, makes this project quite unique in the Netherlands.
To maintain and strengthen the relationship between the village and the beach and to improve the public space, the design team proposed to hide the parking garage inside the dunes. The long and small elongated shape of the parking garage (500 meter) needed great attention to its functionality. The design team respected the fact that users need to quickly orientate themselves when inside the garage, and quickly find their way out to either the town or the beach.
Naturally embedded in the landscape
The architectural design of the parking garage builds forth on the design of the public space, developed by OKRA landscape architects, and respects and adheres to its conditions. The result is that the underground parking is carefully embedded into its natural dune environment. These man‐ shaped dunes, which are shaped organically to create subtle entrances and exits, not only ensures that the character of the dunes stays intact, it also let natural daylight flow into the underground parking garage, benefitting the orientation within the long, elongated parking garage. The design also ensures that the colors and materials used, fuse seamlessly into the urban fabric of Katwijk aan Zee and its characteristic dune landscape. In the evening, the entrances and exits of the underground parking, light up with different colors to become beacons along the coast.
BNA Building of the Year 2016
The underground parking garage in Katwijk aan Zee has been awarded the BNA Best Building of the Year 2016 by the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects (BNA). The award is the most important architectural award in the Netherlands. The architectural design by Royal HaskoningDHV, an independent international engineering and project management consultancy, was selected from 125 submissions. In addition, it has also received the People’s Choice Award.
Commissioned by the Municipality of Katwijk, a team of architects, engineers and contract specialists from Royal HaskoningDHV were responsible for the architectural design, Building Quality Plan, specialist advice and contract of this underground parking. “The underground parking is ground breaking not only because it is an exceptional building, but it also illustrates how the Netherlands have to be innovative in its approach when it comes to protecting our coastline for the future,” according to Hanneke Groenteman, Chairman of the Jury.
The Jury finds the parking garage to be an “exceptionally beautiful object”, which links the town to the sea seamlessly through its integration with the natural environment.
