art route zwolle

client: gemeente Zwolle
location: Zwolle
realization: 2014 (design competition)

The municipality of Zwolle has launched the competition for an art route as an opportunity to connect the station area to the historic city center. The art route should warmly and culturally welcome people from outside. In a subtle way, this route is an introduction to the rich history of Zwolle.

The vision of the art route

During the analysis of the area from the station to the historic city center, the idea arose to create a route marked by 6 bastions, with a mirror surface. The bastions provide routing to and from the historic city center and the station. The themes of time and orientation are easy to recognize.

The theme of 'flow' will become the connecting factor between the tunnel and the pedestrian route from the station square in the form of bright spots. These lights will be related in design to the bastions and will be visible in a more or less random pattern from the tunnel along the outer route. These bright spots will also be covered with a mirrored surface so that they have the same effect as the bastions during the day.

Bastions

The bastions connect the aesthetics of the past with the latest techniques of the present. The 6 bastions are located from the station square, stastionweg, and in and along the old canal.

The design of the bastions is the result of research into plasticity and connection in public space, where the relief, scale, and layering are important aspects. It is a play of bending and positioning the material, creating a cohesive structure that over and over again refers to the old bastions even though they are all designed slightly differently. The old historical bastions were heavy and made of stone. The new bastions are a light version, built from aluminum frames, high-gloss mirrored sprayed.

Theme orientation

The bastions give direction to passengers and act as a marker.

Theme time

The bastions are a reference to the historical bastions and they function as connecting points, switching points between the present and the past. The symbol of the protection (a bastion) of the old Hanzestad city, makes the relationship between old and new in the form of new bastions relevant.

Light spots

The route is indicated by lights in a pattern (to be determined) so that the route is visible both during the day and at night. In the passenger tunnel, the pattern will be applied to the walls and ceiling. This will take into account the existing lighting and routing indications of ProRail. The final design is coordinated with the design of the "new" tunnel.

Theme flow

The bright spots connect the outer route with the inner route in the passenger tunnel and ensure that the visual language is recognizable. The bright spots can be interpreted as water droplets, a reference to the protected factor of the water from the canal. The wet canal from the 17th century has never been separated from the fortified wall with bastions. The bright spots, mirrored and reflecting like water, are therefore naturally connected to the new bastions.