Hidden in Plain Sight
From Shelter to Mediated Sequence
D. Klein (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
A.W. Hermkens – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
I. Nevzgodin – Mentor (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
A.S.C. Meijer – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
More Info
expand_more
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download, forward or distribute the text or part of it, without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license such as Creative Commons.
Abstract
This graduation project investigates how former Cold War aircraft shelters at Airbase Soesterberg can be transformed into a visitor center that represents military heritage while mediating between public accessibility and ecological protection. The airbase, once a closed and highly secured military site, has been transformed into a public nature reserve. However, its Cold War history and the presence of the former USAFE infrastructure remain only partly visible and understandable to visitors, while ecological restrictions continue to limit movement and access.
The project focuses on three third-generation aircraft shelters: 623, 625 and 626. Instead of treating the visitor center as a single building, the design proposes a distributed sequence of shelters, routes and thresholds. Shelter 626 functions as the Visitor & Event Center, shelter 623 as the Experience Center, and shelter 625 as the Museum Center. These shelters are connected by partly sunken corridors and introduced through a small pavilion on the former taxiway.
Through research-by-design, heritage analysis, ecological mapping, precedent research and spatial testing, the project develops an architectural strategy based on controlled accessibility. The existing military qualities of the shelters, such as their arched volumes, heavy concrete and steel construction, darkness, enclosure and introverted atmosphere, are preserved and used as design material. New interventions are inserted as readable contemporary layers.
The project concludes that Cold War military heritage can become meaningful public architecture when preservation, accessibility and ecological restraint are treated as interdependent design conditions. Architecture does not simply open the site, but carefully guides how visitors move through, understand and experience the former military landscape.