Castricum “the village by the dunes”. Castricum Station can become the link between Metropolitan Amsterdam and the dunes.
Goal
Transit Orientated Development (TOD) is a vision of node development that came over from America. BNA research coordinated a design study with the Province of North Holland, NS, Vereniging Deltametropool, TU Delft and involved municipalities on the application of TOD at five stations along the Zaan corridor. How can stations combine public transportation and spatial development in the short and (medium) long term?
Benjamin Robichon (Knevel Architects), light artist Paul Baartmans, traffic engineer Floris Visser (Groen Licht Verkeersadvies) and landscape architect Maike van Stiphout (DS) formed the team Lighten-up! They chose Castricum station and its surroundings because Castricum is the gateway to the Kennemer Dunes for train passengers in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Region. This unique position is underutilized in the current development of the station site.
Design
The position of the station makes it possible to develop a variant of TOD, namely LOD (Landscape Orientated Development). An important condition for the development of the zone between dunes and station is the linking of business and recreation with biodiversity. The dune area offers nature-inclusive activities such as nature camping, nature swimming and nature burial. This is the landscape form of node development. Stones and roads give way to grass and dune sand. The metropolitan train passenger steps out directly into the landscape.
Details
The development of the station area is complemented by a marketing campaign for both village and dunes, this will attract new visitors. Cars will be routed around the village, eliminating through car traffic from the station area. Between the village and other dune villages, the old streetcar connection will be restored. This “dune streetcar” makes Castricum the real gateway to the dunes from the Metropolitan Region.
BNA research published the fifteen designs for TOD on the Zaan corridor in the book Onder weg!, available to order at bna.nl
This type of station location was discovered through this assignment and is now being developed under the title Outer Gates (see Pilot Outer Gates).
Related projects:
