We are happy to share that our entry for the city of Utrecht is winner of the Dutch edition of the European Green Cities Award!
A win made all the more wonderful by the second place for Hengelo, based on our design of the redevelopment of the city centre.

Following our continuous and productive collaboration with both municipalities, greenery and water are returning to the city centres.

In recent decades, Utrecht has made a structural choice to reduce motorised traffic and transform the freed-up space into parks and places for recreation, further improving the quality of life. Our selected projects Catharijnesingel, Oosterspoorbaan Park and Croeselaan embody that development. Catharijnesingel was spotlighted in this respect: here we brought nature into the heart of the city, forming a green link between the old and the new city.

Hengelo has celebrated delivery of the renewed Marktplein, following transformation of several other central streets. The introduction of diverse planting and water management solutions is shaping the public space where people now love to spend time.

We are grateful for this acknowledgement and cannot wait to continue our work on attractive green public spaces that improve slow mobility routes and create resilient structures adapting urban environments to climate change!

The Former Deportation Station Bobigny has been nominated for the 2023 edition of France’s prestigious ‘Équerre d’argent’ architecture prize. The project is one of five selected contenders within the // public spaces and landscape // category.
The memorial has been inaugurated this year, 80 years after the first deportation convoy left the station of Bobigny for the camps.

The award winners will be announced on November 20th in Paris.

On June 18, exactly 80 years after the first convoy departed for Auschwitz-Birkenau, the former station of Bobigny was officially opened. As the sole surviving French deportation station from World War II, it has been transformed into a memorial park over the past years, following the winning design by a team led by OKRA landscape architects in 2016.

A landscape-based approach can help address key spatial and scenic challenges in a densely populated region of Zuid-Holland.
We are proud to share the publication “Mission Knowledge Region by the Sea 2070” , produced in cooperation with Delft University of Technology, Atlas Research and The Global Institute on Innovation Districts.

By using a landscape approach, we are able to identify opportunities to improve the existing situation while incorporating housing, mobility, economy, water, nature and landscape in an integral way. The existing landscape and urban structures help us define opportunities for spatial-economic development and highlight spatial conditions that ensure a productive, socially and ecologically inclusive and future-proof direction for smart growth.

The collaboration aims to develop building blocks that serve as future perspectives; a unifying narrative that encourages long-term cooperation as a basis for sustainable knowledge sharing and resilient change.

View the full report

The refurbishment of the city centre of Hengelo is still underway, but has already won various awards, including the Most Inspiring Inner City Project of the Netherlands.

No less than 18 different municipalities took part in the election organised by Platform Binnenstadsmanagement in recent months. Together with Veenendaal, Hengelo was chosen as the winner. During the Day for the City Centre 2023, Hengelo received the prize for the theme of ‘cooperation’ in its own city.

The jury appreciates the guts the municipality of Hengelo has shown to admit previous mistakes in the development of the city’s layout and to open up the entire process. Everyone, including residents, young people, entrepreneurs and schools, was allowed to help build a new design for the Market Square. The design has been completely adapted to a square full of greenery, trees and meeting places. The city centre of Hengelo succeeded in converting previous negative noises into an active participation process in which everyone could provide their input.

The jury is also very positive about the decisive approach of the municipality in this project. The process of redesigning the Marktplein is a source of inspiration for every city centre in the Netherlands.

De Twaalf Apostelen office area is located right next to the Bunnik railway station. It is an outdated, stony area that is struggling with vacancy while, at the same time, there is a huge need for housing in the greater Utrecht region.

Because of this contrast the development potential is great: The location has strategical strenth as a residential location due to the proximity of the station and the Utrecht Science Park. In addition, it is also located in the middle of the attractive landscapes of the Kromme Rijn, the country estates and the New Dutch Waterline.

In 2021, @OKRA, @SVP and @Cross won a selection to draw up a vision for the station area. For this purpose, the opportunities for the site and the development of the station have been carefully considered. Attention was also paid to the site’s relation to the greater region. Together with residents and @gemeente Bunnik, but also with the collaboration partners @BAM, @Certitudo, @Portaal and @Lekstede as key stakeholders, we went looking for Bunnik’s DNA.

The municipality had clear wishes, including opportunities for housing starters and senior citizens, the addition of high-quality greenery and improving the existing connection of the station with the surrounding area. Based on this, we have developed a vision with ‘ten rules for Bunnik’ in which the ambition for the site is laid down, including:

• Bunnik railway station is to also become the ultimate bicycle station: a new bicycle bridge provides a connection with the landscape and Odijk, but also forms an attractive route to Utrecht Science Park.
• The Twaalf Apostelen is being transformed into an attractive residential area with a central park. The green character makes it a natural extension of Bunnik, with the landscape always close by. Densification and greening therefore go hand in hand with room for climate adaptation and biodiversity.
• This is made possible because the cars will park centrally in a parking facility along the track.
• There is space for companies and offices between the railway and the A12.

In the coming year, this vision will be further developed into an urban development plan.

The jury has declared our project, park and bank of Catharijnesingel south, the winner of the Rietveld Prize 2022. This means that it has been rated as the best project in the field of architecture and urban planning in Utrecht over the past two years.

The jury values the project as an “exemplary project that fits in with the softening and slowing down of the city centre, in which stone and traffic make way for water, biodiversity and accommodation”.

The project was chosen from a pre-selection of five projects. It was the only landscape-scale project from the selection and only the second project of this type to win the award since its introduction more than 30 years ago.

We are proud to announce that the reconstruction of Catharijnesingel for which we have made the design has won this year’s award. The International Jury considers the reconstruction of the canal, together with the recovery of a linear park running along its banks, a model intervention for the survival of our cities in the new Climate Era.

For Catharijnesingel we combined the historic atmosphere of the canal and park surrounding the historic city of Utrecht with a forward-thinking vision for the city of Utrecht, boosting the mobility transition and social and ecological inclusivity as well.

We are grateful for this recognition and are proud to create places that transform and bring new meaning to our cities.

During the annual presentation of the Arc Awards, organised by magazine ‘De Architect’, Little Zennepark was declared winner in the Urban Planning category.

According to the jury, the winner ‘Het Kleine Zennepark’ in Brussels, by OKRA and Brut, searches to achieve a transformation of a city district in Brussels. The surgical approach to design results in a promenade that adds air and space in a densely built-up area. For example, the plan should address the social cohesion of the area by offering different species meeting places, including schools and cultural centres.

In addition to Kleine Zennepark, De Tuunen Texel by FARO and Landscape Architects for SALE as well as Winkelsteeg by PosadMaxwan were nominated for the prize from a long list of approximately 20 projects.