cv | works | sculptures | site specific | environmental | land art | architectural | publications | exhibitions | symposia/lectures | cities | encounters | accounts

CITIES - sculptures and land art

Dirksland Sommelsdijk & Middelharnis
1984/1990 and designs for Highway S47 (now N215)

The Provincial Department of Construction of the Province of Zuid-Holland NL, asked the sculptor Lucien den Arend to make a proposal for the new stretch of highway S47 (now N215) which was to bypass the towns Middelharnis, Sommelsdijk and Dirksland on the island of Goeree-Overflakkee in Zuid-Holland. He was to take into account the inherent qualities of the Goeree-Overflakkee landscape and visualize how the highway could be related to its surroundings by way of the integration of art. The Dirksland bridge was one of the main elements designed and realized by Lucien den Arend in this project.

N215 - an artistic approach, by Lucien den Arend
In 1984 the ''Praktijkbureau Beeldende Kunstopdrachten'' and the Provincial department of Construction of the province of Zuid-Holland NL (Office for Public Art Commissions) commissioned me to make a study of the provincial plans to project a ring-road, the S47 - now the N215 - bypassing the towns of Middelharnis, Sommelsdijk and Dirksland in the province, South Holland. I was to explore the possibilities for implementing innovations resulting from an artistic perception of the plans. The Praktijkbureau was founded to explore new possibilities for art in the public space. My involvement started out as an experiment. After presenting my report, most of my proposals were accepted and I was asked to join the team of the construction phase.

The area to be studied was the former island Goeree-Overflakkee, in the south-west of The Netherlands. It is a typical Dutch polder-land - everything made by man. For many centuries this part of Holland has been enlarged by recapturing land from the sea and cultivated. This was a gradual change.

the road in its surroundings
Whenever a new large scale project like this one is undertaken, there is the danger that too much of the original surroundings are lost in the attempt to fit the new into the old situation. In this process the original infrastructure is adapted to the direction and character of the road - drainage ditches are added and lines of trees are planted along its axis. In this way the accent is moved from the rural landscape to the throughway. Much damage has already been done following this strain of thought. But this is not all - after the engineers have gone, an even more damaging phase is provoked and eventually even encouraged - the areas bordering the road are adapted to it and before too many years have passed the original unity is split in half and invaded by a new entity - the road environment.

My first proposal was to let the new road be as minimal as possible and have the existing characteristic elements of this landscape to be left untouched and even be restored as close to the road as was realizable. For the north section the planning was already too far and, what I had feared, happened. The provincial planners agreed with me and the second road-section in the Dirksland Polder was constructed according to my proposals.

continued

3D anaglyph photographs of my sculpture

works©author: Lucien den Arend
© 1998/2016 denarend.com Google
this site was developed by DutchDeltaDesign
Penttilä
Seppäläntie 860  51200 Kangasniemi Finland
telephone +358 (0)44 264 12 12

HOME
new on this site
vantablack

use my translucent backgrounds of different opacity and color