Beeldkwaliteitsplan Buitengebied Westerveld
The rural area of the Westerveld municipality has a wide variety of landscapes. This diversity was created in the past, for example, by the difference in land and water management, but mainly by the land usage of its inhabitants. Each landscape has its own history and therefore its own identity and cohesion. The difference between the different landscapes has greatly diminished due to human activity, especially after World War II. This includes cutting down trees and more general building construction methods. The municipality sought to strengthen the distinction between different types of landscape through a rural framework memorandum, a rural spatial plan, a visual quality plan and an aesthetic memorandum. B+O Architecture and Urban design was asked to develop a visual quality plan for the rural area, for which the goal was to create and characterize the attractiveness and uniqueness of the different landscapes. The aim was not only about preserving and strengthening what is left of the past, but also about incorporating new developments in good manner.
client: Municipality of Westerveld / estimation of completion: 2010
basic approach
The plan for the visual appearance of the landscape was developed with the aim of enabling the renewal of the rural area while simultaneously preserving landscape values and heritage.
For this reason, the landscape was carefully analyzed and stratified based on basic characteristics. Such as the urban structure, color, but also the species composition of plants or the spatial characteristics of morphology and buildings.
cultivated in the countryside
The village of Westerveld was and is a typical agricultural village and as a result the construction was directly linked to the agricultural function. Another way of managing: landscape and buildings together determine identity. The landscape in the Westerveld has six basic qualities. A farmhouse has one basic feature. Every agricultural farm is always anchored in the landscape, but there are some differences according to the type of landscape. This difference reinforces the identity of the landscape type.
The visual quality plan gives a positive answer and indicates that the non-agricultural enterprise must maintain a basic quality. The built environment value the quality of the landscape. The image quality of the farm yard is inherently linked to the visual quality of the landscape. A new function can easily be created within the shell of a former farm, outbuildings and the shell of the farm yard. No longer anchored in the landscape, but being a guest in the landscape.
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