Living room atmosphere central to the redevelopment of Alpen
With the refurbishment of Alpen, the village is given a new lease of life. In the center, a living room atmosphere has been created where it is nice to stay. The Dutch companies Felixx and Grijsen worked closely together on this project.
- Client
- Municipality of Alpen
- Landscape architect
- Felixx
- Location
- Alpen
Alpen has to deal with an aging population, young people moving to the big cities. To break through this trend, the town council has decided to give the village a real metamorphosis. Alpen has a lively middle class, is well connected to the main infrastructure, and is situated in a beautiful rural area. To arm itself against the challenges of rural decline, these qualities should be used to motivate also young families to settle in Alpen. In different phases, the public space of the German village will therefore be tackled.
The design for the redesign was made by landscape architecture firm Felixx from Rotterdam. "Initially, a competition was held for the redesign of the main street in Alpen," says Deborah Lambert, partner at Felixx. "We proposed to use the available budget for the redesign of the shopping street for a series of interventions throughout the village. This allowed us to achieve a broader impact on the quality of life in Alpen. The municipality supported our approach, and we won the selection. Together with De Zwarte Hond, we then worked out a master plan defining nine subprojects. These are places that add sports and play facilities, connect walking and cycling routes, and make room for ecology and cultural experiences. They strengthen the social structure of the village, with a rich pallet of facilities for both young and older residents.
Rathausstrasse
The first project, Rathausstrasse, has now been realized. A part of the center in Alpenhas been transformed into a communal living room. It is furnished with a fountain. On top of this, a series of enlarged living room furniture has been placed: a sofa as a couch, a large floor lamp, hanging party lights, a bicycle stand as bookends and multi-stemmed trees in containers as a bunch of flowers on the table. The custom-made street furniture and matching atmospheric lighting complete the living room feeling. Grijsen developed a new bench especially for the German village Alpen: the Retrobank. The distinctive outdoor bench is now included in the assortment. "In addition, we developed four hanging lamps with curved mast," says Patrick Grijsen, General Manager of Grijsen Park- & Street Design. "The lamps give the area a living room feel."
"Grijsen is a constructive party that thinks well about solutions. They can easily translate a design or idea into practice.”
German delegation
When it became clear that Felixx could carry out the contract, a delegation from Germany, together with a delegation of Felixx, came to the headquarters of Grijsen in Winterswijk. "Even the mayor of Alpen," says Patrick Grijsen proudly. "That was cool. Felixx has made a design for the street furniture. During the consultation, we looked at whether it was technically possible to realize it within the available budget. Besides the hanging lamps and benches, we also made custom-made poles and bicycle racks finished with wood. In addition, we are now working on developing large planters to match the living room feel. We can make anything, but you have to deal with price, quality, and appearance. Everything has to be right. The best part of our profession is to develop beautiful products together with other partners. That certainly worked for the redesign of the village." Alpen is a beautiful old village, as Patrick Grijsen experienced during the various visits. "It is important that the street furniture fits the image of the village. Felixx has from the beginning focused on the combination of wood and steel for street furniture. We have further responded to that. The whole city will have the same look, this also applies to the products that we will develop," said Patrick Grijsen.
Felixx ultimately developed three strategies for Alpen to maintain the current economic conditions, strengthen social services and improve the ecological performance of the village. The first strategy creates a characteristic village street for shops and commercial functions. The second strategy unites all the existing landscaped areas within and around the village and turns them into an active green belt with various facilities. The third strategy is the transformation of the center into a communal living room.
Occupancy
To arrive at these strategies, Felixx and De Zwarte Hond conducted extensive consultations with residents and local entrepreneurs. An early start was made by asking residents for their ideas for the village of Alpen. After drawing up the preliminary design, an information market was held where we visited the nine locations. People could indicate what they liked and what they did not like. It was an open competition during which we visited Alpen three times to present the plans. During this phase, too, some residents could react to our plans. They mainly indicated that they wanted locations with high residential quality. We then came up with the living room concept.
In the search for the most suitable street furniture, Felixx quickly found Grijsen. "They are a very skilled party. At the time we started, few parties could enter into an open process with us, where the street furniture can be designed from scratch. Since this project, we often work together with Grijsen. For example, together we designed the entrance plaza for Brussels Airport. In the old situation, this was a Park + Ride. After the attack on the airport, cars had to make way for a park entrance with lots of green. Grijsen is a constructive party that thinks well about solutions. They can easily translate a design or idea into practice.”
Dutch made
Lambert last visited Alpen last summer. "I saw that a lot of elderly people use the living room and that people who work at the center come and have lunch on the benches. It's nice to see that the area is being used as a living room." Patrick Grijsen is also very pleased with the project. "The best part is that we have created something beautiful together with a Dutch architectural firm for a German client. We do more projects for our eastern neighbors, but then we mainly work with German landscape architects. Now everything comes from our little country. It's great to see that we're able to pull this off."
Products in this project
