Underground Parking at Katwijk aan Zee

Traditionally, the fate of the Netherlands has always been linked to water. Most of the country lies below sea level. For centuries, Holland has battled sea water by engineering an impressive network of locks, pumps and dikes. It’s a constant threat, but water has also always been a source of income for fishing, commerce and shipping. The Netherlands has known wealth and success thanks to water. In the Golden Age, large trading cities were created along the coast, Amsterdam being the most famous of them. In the 19th century, Rotterdam established itself as a trading port and became the world’s largest port of that era.

Initially, people were not yet in possession of sufficient or efficient means for managing water. The concept of the dike in the Netherlands was introduced by the Romans. They designed strategic roads, often along rivers. These roads were built so high that they remained viable during high tide. As a result, they also acted as a water barrier. This was the beginning of dikes and streamlined works. Today, in total, there are 3,600 kilometres of managed primary flood defenses, 13,500 kilometres of other flood defenses and 235,000 kilometres of managed watercourses.

Despite this major development, the history of the Dutch landscape is one of disasters, dike breakthroughs and laborious regenerations. The dramatic flood of January 1953 still lives on in everyone’s mind. Sometimes land was gained due to the propagation of new land growth by sedimentation on older deposits. The battle between land and sea has inspired numerous artists and has been described in books, poems and songs. Famous singer Jacques Brel illustrates this in My Flat Country:

“When the North Sea breaks stubbornly on the high dunes

And white flakes of foam break apart on the crests,

When the surly tide crashes on the black basalt

And dike and dune are covered over with a grey haze

When at low tide, the beach is as desolate as a desert And wet west winds shriek with venom,

Then fights my country. . . My flat country. . .”

To protect the country from the North Sea, constant attention has to be paid to the shaping of the coastline and to the functioning of its watering effect. In Katwijk aan Zee, a tourist destination on the coast, the watering system no longer fulfilled the safety standards and the coastline had to be strengthened. At the same time, there was an urgent need for more parking places around the boulevard for tourism and recreation purposes.

A ‘dike-in-dune’ concept was created. Within this concept, a new dike is placed parallel to the boulevard. This dike is not visible because it is entirely covered by dunes. The dune landscape is widened and runs across the dike. The ‘dikein-dune’ concept ensures that the function of water protection comes closer to the sea, further away from the boulevard. As a result, buildings at the seafront will be ‘indoors’, well-protected inside the dike area. With the introduction of this concept, some of the building restrictions in a dune landscape area expired. Therefore, the urbanisation of Katwijk aan Zee can be extended towards the coast. The concept allows for more spatial developments towards the sea, both in terms of brownfield development and in terms of landscape developments. The dune area is unlocked and so becomes more accessible.

The architecture of the parking garage and the design of the dune landscape are in sync

Following the ‘dike-in-dune’ concept, the design for an underground parking garage has been set up. This has been done by a multidisciplinary team of construction engineers, landscape designers and architects. The parking is located between the existing boulevard and a new dike. In addition, wider dunes have been created all around the project site. The architecture of the parking garage and the design of the dune landscape are in sync, they have gone together all along the process.

RoyalHaskoning DHV has established the design principles for the parking garage in a Building Quality Plan. Based on this, the Dutch engineering consultancy Ballast Nedam, in collaboration with Zwarts and Jansma Architects, has further developed the design of the parking garage and has led its construction. OKRA Landscape Architects is the agency responsible for the design of the surrounding landscape and the public realm.

What makes this project so special is that in addition to designing an innovative solution for coastal reinforcement, in which the parking is part of the dike, attention is also paid to the way the existing landscape will be experienced and improved, for the profit of Katwijk aan Zee as a recreational destination. This is the first time such an underground parking has been created, as part of the coastal consolidation, and respectfully integrated into the dune landscape. The parking garage becomes part of the landscape of the dunes, which pass over the parking deck. The parking entrances are recognisable within the landscape concept, but modestly shaped.

The interior layout of the underground parking itself is clear and has a simple design

The integral design of the parking and the public space around it is recognisable when approaching the building through the network of paths running along the landscape. Thanks to the lighting design of the paths, the introduction of specific colours and icons related to the dune landscape, footpaths and cycle paths are identifiable and easy to use when people are moving between parking, dunes, beach and the centre of Katwijk aan Zee.

There is a network of connections between the five entrances of the underground parking. The emergency exits emerge from the dune landscape in a sculptural way, serving as landmarks along the routes. At night they light up in different colours, like beacons along the coast.

The interior layout of the underground parking itself is clear and has a simple design. 
 

Over the total length of 500 metres, there are hardly any columns or other obstacles. Combined with the use of the landscape colours and textures inside the building, the outside-inside transition is very natural and the orientation inside is made easy.

This inside-outside experience is also reinforced by the material used for the facades of the building. On one side, the facade is opaque, made with perforated steel panels with a dune grass print. On the other side of the parking garage, the facade is made of glass that brings daylight into the building and offers a spectacular view of the coast, with the characteristic Dutch cloudy skies. With these kind of design principles and high-quality design details, the new underground parking of Katwijk aan Zee is, as required by the Building Quality Plan, a fullfledged public space.

The underground parking in Katwijk aan Zee is part of the Kustwerk Katwijk project and the municipality of Katwijk, the Water Board of Rijnland, the Province of South-Holland and the department of Waterways and Public Works, are involved and responsible for a safe and liveable coast and dune landscape.

The design of Katwijk aan Zee meets the safety standards and provides the required extra parking place. At the same time, this design fits and improves the characteristic dune landscape of the region. The village, from its centre through the boulevard, is now better connected to the sea.

The project is a beautiful piece of Dutch engineering and has won many awards, including Best Building of the Netherlands in 2016. The jury stated: “It is a building that shows how the Netherlands should deal with the construction of our coast in the future.” In the meantime, the underground parking has become an international attraction. Without a doubt, the quality of this design is the result of intense multi-disciplinary collaboration.