mouton

client:
Provincie West-Vlaanderen en Agentschap voor Natuur en Bos

general contractor:
Artes Depret

location:
Knokke-Heist Graaf Leon Lippensdreef 10

gross surface (m2):
4817

status:
completed in 2015

VISITOR CENTER

The new visitor center is conceived as 3 linear entities of which the middle bay consists of a core in exposed concrete, whereas the two outer bays are wooden structures.
The floor plates are concrete slabs with a bottom side of exposed ribs. The middle bay has ribs of concrete, in the side bays replaced by laminated wooden beams.
These side bays are erected as a column and beam construction of laminated wood. The columns, placed in a fixed distance of 1,25 m, measure 16 by 40 cm (thus having a fire resistance of 60 minutes) and an increasing height.
The stabilizing part of the most Northern bay where the expositions take place, consists of oblique wooden columns of the same 16 by 40 cm, jointed to the roof girders. Providing oblique wooden pullers in both directions of the space, makes it possible to have only tension in these bracing columns, regardless of the wind direction. This formal principle subtly fragments the long exhibition space into smaller zones: inclining columns leading the visitor through a space where structure imposes the image.

OBSERVATORY

At the back of the dike between the nature park and the plain of Zwin, the observatory is literally planted. Overviewing the plain and her vegetation, the visitor can follow and experience the come and go of birds, tides and other peculiarities of the surroundings.
The structure of the observatory consists of 5 parallel walls of rough timber concrete, a reference to the bunkers, as an ‘Atlantic Wall’ erected along the shore. The wood is extended in the interior.
The dike has an important function as embankment and couldn’t be interrupted during construction. The first concrete wall (on the dry side) increases the security against a high water level. This wall is supported by a pile wall, founded separately from the main building, but stabilized horizontally by the construction behind.
The design is conceived as an extension of the existing environment. Covering the roofs and the space between the concrete walls with sand, enhances the continuity of a unique landscape.

HUTES

Scattered throughout the park are different types of huts, from tall wooden viewing huts using Douglas fir as structural timber to low simple huts consisting of a very slender steel structure capped with corrugated iron.