Location
Oostrozebeke
Client
West Flanders provincial government
Oostrozebeke municipal government
Design
Master plan for the village centre of Oostrozebeke.
Village square, thoroughfare, green connecting axes with open green spaces, Mandel valley, cemetery, new town hall, etc. ...
This master plan clearly shows how the image quality and quality of life of the inhabitants of Oostrozebeke can be raised to a higher level.
The town council wanted to build a new town hall and commissioned an architectural design office to develop a vision for it. The new town hall was proposed at the centre of the market square, the only open space in the village.
As a landscape architect, I was asked to elaborate on this vision as part of the connecting public space. However, I could not support this vision as it would remove all opportunities to create a central open green space. The city council could be convinced to revise the plans and I proposed to place the new city hall at the edge of an open green space. A central ‘Village Green’, inspired by the still perfectly functioning English medieval town planning. It will form a green heart there where residents can meet each other. Not only the implantation of the town hall was determined. A design proposal of how the architecture of the town hall might look was also already made.
Besides the new town hall, all community functions cluster around the ‘Village Green’. The meeting centre, church, childcare, youth centre, library, sports hall and sports grounds, etc. … Around it all the residential functions. The master plan also examined all possible slow green connections between the different village parts and evolved into a total vision with a green supporting structure.
What is unique about this master plan is that thought had already been given to how the layout of the various parts of the village could be redesigned with concrete design proposals, albeit freely chosen by the municipal authorities. After all, such plans are implemented in phases with which the danger lurks that the intended spatial and aesthetic coherence is lost. To this end, the various parts of the public space were detailed and designed in the same style.
The ‘Village Green’, the market square, the church square, the car park of the new town hall and football club KSC Oostrozebeke, the car park of the Mandelmeersen sports centre, the N357 road crossing, the green lung and other open green spaces, the garden of De Wiemkes childcare centre and JH ‘t Ipperste youth centre, and:
The new town hall – Concrete initiatives for realisation were not yet taken.
The cemetery – The municipal administration is implementing the design in phases.
The landscape park De Mandelvallei – An implementation file for the realisation of the section between Meulebeeksesteenweg and Tieltsteenweg was drawn up by our design office.
These photorealistic render images may not be used or distributed without permission from design agency Andy Malengier BV