Green & Urban campus in the heart of Lelystad

Campus Midden, the southern part of the city centre, is the last part of Lelystad Centrum to be developed. Newtown Lelystad was founded in the 1960’s to become the capital of the new province Flevoland. The city was the perfect playing field for urbanists to test new urban models. The trend of time is clearly readable in the city’s urban patchwork. The area itself was originally planned as the city’s service area (shopping mall, Hospital, Schools, Sports facilities, etc). Now the Gemeente is aiming on a more mixed-use campus of housing combined with city functions.

Central to our design considerations was the question: who will ultimately live on the campus and how can we support these newcomers to form communities? The demand for social cohesion at different scale levels is fulfilled by encouraging temporary and/or permanent collectivity. The design of space relates to the different degrees of communality: space for the city, space for the community, space for yourself

Landscape axes divide the plan area into 4 clusters of buildings placed on mounds. The wet land characteristic of the Oostvaardersplassen is the reference for the landscape design. Within the clusters there are varied residential buildings in a car-free campus setting. The houses and apartments have a strong relationship with the underlying landscape. The urban development and architectural design encourage the new residents to make connections and form communities at different scales.

ROOTS shows how green qualities and central city location are interwoven in a challenging, innovative and small-scale way.