WATER

keywords: Quality, River quay, Spaarne, Haarlem, Water management, Lowlands, water systems

Earlier design

Water is one of the most important elements in urban planning. Water often is an qualitative element in a design. I my earlier designs if there is no water I will try to create water or to do something with water collection. Not only water can be used as qualitative or aesthetic reason but it can also been use as sustainable element, for example for cooling down or warming up a building. For this subject I choose the project of Haarlem that I did in my Master 2 trajectory. In this project the river Spaarne in Haarlem was my main design element for the masterplan. The quality of the River Spaarne I used as binding element to bind the city of Haarlem in a vertical way. By using this river that runs from the South to the North of the city I was able to find many interesting spots along this river to use a quality in the city. The pictures below shows the Northern part of Haarlem. I choose to make the critical design in this area because for me it was the most interesting place in the city where the quality of the River is not being use. On the western river quay I created an esplanade with apartments in front of the river. On the eastern river quay the river gets into the area creating canals.



fig.1
Perspective of my Strategic project on Haarlem along the river Spaarne 



 

fig.2 two area of the project in relation with the river



Future Design

For in the future I would like to know more about water management. There are many possibilities we can do in our design concerning water that we are not doing right now. In the reader/book of Prof. T.M. de Jong "Sun Wind Water Earth Life Living; Legends for design" we have a whole library how to use water in our designs. For in the future I will use the great information in order to create a better relation between city and water or building and water. Below a fragment from the book how the Lowland water system work. For me as a designer in the Lowlands I feel the obligation to learn and now more about water management in the future.



fig.3 Water system in the Lowlands with on the right the drainage pomping stations in eralier times (source; SWWELL de Jong)





fig3. other fragment from the book SWWELL by de Jong showing the differnt watermanagment task