Lilith Ronner van Hooijdonk

Haagse Hoogte

Proud of Haags Veen

a landmark pays an homage to Haags Veen

Haagse Hoogte

Proud of Haags Veen

Hobbemaplein is the centre of a new city area: Haags Veen. Right now, it is no more than a traffic square, where buses, cars, trams and pedestrians cross each other. The adjacent Haagse Markt however is extremely popular and attracts many visitors each day. We wondered how a design could share the story of the versatility of the neighbourhood, whilst simultaneously create a space to pause and encounter.

We propose a landmark on the square, that functions as a beacon from afar, and as a concentration point up close. We refer to the needle as an urban object that has been used numerous times before as the marking of a middle point. We build it up from architectural elements found in the city area: materials and shapes found in buildings surrounding Hobbemaplein. Three circles link the needle to its surroundings in one composition: one circle as a bench around the needle, and two surrounding the existing monuments on the square.

Hobbemaplein in its current state: a busy traffic square

we refer to the obelisk as a gesture to mark a place or centre point

we were inspired by the playfulness found in pasticcio

three circles tie the obelisk and the existing monuments to the green

colours of the flowers and trees change with the seasons

Background stories

de ronde bank om de naald maakt een verbinding met het bestaande pad

de circular bench connects with the existing path

Colophon

Location: Hobbemaplein, The Hague (NL)

Client: Municipality of The Hague

Year: 2018

Status: laureate

Program: landmark

Collaborators: Carmen Buitenhuis Architect

Photography: Johannes van Assem

Public exterior Haagse Hoogte Next story 1 / Next story

About Lilith Ronner van Hooijdonk

The office was founded in 2010 in Rotterdam. We design narrative architecture that tells the story of the assignment at hand. A story with different layers: that of the context, a response to building tradition, the wishes of our client, sustainable applications and technical opportunities. The architecture surprises with imagination. Our work reaches from transformations to public spaces like a Performative Space in Eindhoven, and from building a multi-family house in Amsterdam to researching our practice and writing stories about it.

Partners: Elsbeth Ronner, Lilith van Assem

Employees: Eva Ventura (2019 - nu), Milou Klein (2019), Melvin van den Houdt (2019), Laura Steenbeke (2018), Joppe Douma (2018), Madeleine Mans (2016 - 2018), Paula Cores Barrel (2017), Jimmy Stegeman (2016), Dirk Gonzáles Veugelers (2016), André Cramer (2014), Clémence Boru (2013), Anne de Ruyter (2012)

They wrote about us: Modulør, Archined, Architectuur.nl, Dirty Science

Design: De Ronners
Development: Martijn van Bachum

Everything on this website is licenced under Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.