Urban Geology

Architectural Review, The, Feb, 2000 by Connie Van Cleef

Designed as an urban haven, this modern garden in Tilburg combines sensuous textures, bold colours and inventive landscaping.

In recent years, the provincial Dutch town of Tilburg has been the subject of a modest series of architectural and urban design initiatives. Adriaan Geuze and his practice West 8 were invited to make an urban garden in the town centre. Geuze is acquiring a reputation for inventive, contemporary landscape design capable of enlivening unpromising city sites; his regeneration of Schouwburgplein in Rotterdam (AR January 1998), for instance, imaginatively combined hard landscaping with a series of animated light sculptures.

The large triangular site lies near Tilburg's main station. Dominating the northern edge is the Interpolis headquarters, a monumental office complex distilled into a chunky point block and an elongated slab. The architecture establishes a strong east-west axis across the site, on which West 8 energetically extemporize through a series of interlocking planes of different colours and textures. Covering around two hectares, the garden forms a calm and introverted urban enclave, carefully shielded from its surroundings by low hedges and a dark green steel fence.

The heroic scale of the Interpolis headquarters required a comparably bold landscape design. Flat lawns are formed into an abstract pattern that recalls tectonic fractures and fissures in the earth's surface, their edges defined by dark grey concrete retaining walls. Interspersed between the green swards are soft paths infilled with reddish brown wood chips and narrow ponds containing water lilies and frogs. The shifting orientation of trapezoidal lawns, paths and ponds creates a constantly changing sense of perspective. Scattered around the site are large Douglas firs, their long, lean outlines counterbalancing the tall tower. These will eventually grow into substantial specimens, creating an urban forest.

Laid out in an overlapping pattern of large scales, like the discarded skin of some monstrous reptile, a plateau of irregular slate slabs extends up to the base of the long office slab. The rough grey epidermis is punctured by a grove of delicate magnolia trees. In spring, blossoms from the magnolia enliven the slate plane, the fragile white flowers forming an unusually striking contrast with the dense, geological surface. A rustic timber bridge traverses the slate plateau connecting the entrance square with the garden. This main gateway is supplemented by two secondary entrances along the site's long hypotenuse.

During the daytime the garden is freely and democratically accessible for both Interpolis employees and the general Tilburg public. On warm sunny days staff can also take their work into the green surroundings, with service points providing electricity and computer connections. The broad edges of ponds and timber-clad retaining walls form accommodating benches. Through dynamic geometry, inventive landscaping and challenging juxtaposition of materials, Geuze has created a highly civilized modern garden for the much-needed contemplation of and retreat from the frenetic bustle of urban life.