A blue scape of reflection

Abstract

Since the industrial revolution we have become estranged from the sea. We became opponents instead of working together, and put up high walls to protect ourselves form the vagaries of an unpredictable sea. Somewhere along our path of progress, we lost our human connection to the sea. Before the sea became something we secluded, it was known for its reviving properties. In our increasingly intense society of busy cities and never ending incentives from globalization, leading to stress and burn-outs, there is a need to rebalance our cities and ourselves. Taking into account future projections for sea level rise, sea defence systems will have to grow intensively if land below sea level is to be kept habitable. This will result in a cumulative gap between the sea and the human system. Combined with the ever increasing amount of re-urbanisation, a whole new level of pressure on the border between coastal cities and the sea will arise. An example of this is the city of Den Helder. This city is disconnected from the sea by a eleven meter high dike, protecting the country from engulfing this geographical anchoring point of the Netherlands. The project focusses on actively leaving the city behind, projecting itself on the water in the solitude created by the dike, to return to the city revived again. The dike is presented as a public space, turning it from a border into a threshold before entering the territory of the sea. Transgressing this border generates a route of reflection from the rigid and intense city, into the wideness and freedom of the sea. The project consists out of a bathhouse, a swimming pool, a restaurant and a public roof and a viewing point. These are connected by a series of different routes. First the visitor leaves the city and enters the tower of entrance, here orientation is lost by the spiral stairs leading to the bridge. The bridge turns crossing the dike into a deliberate act of transgressing the border. The bridge ends in a high central space which is focussed on the changing, the abandonment of once responsibilities and stigma. This space splits into two elements with their own direction. From this space three routes lead through the diverse functions relating to the water, each in their own way. At the end of the two elements one finds himself surrounded by the water. One reaches for the view and the endless horizon of the sea and the other frames the touching of the water. After this experience of projecting oneself into the water, the visitor can return to the city revived again or linger a bit longer on the public landscape of the dike and benefit from the qualities of the sea.