Jan van Grunsven, Arno van der Mark

Schenkkade Den Haag

Jan van Grunsven and Arno van der Mark's proposal for the Schenkstrook was chosen from a number of sketch plans that were developed at the request of of Ed 't Hoen from the REO municipal services and included those of Onno Dirker, Erick de Lyon, Urs Pfannenmüller, Linda Pollack and David Veldhoen.

The artists developed their plan in collaboration with the City Office of Urban Development. Van Grunsven and Van der Mark noticed that the course of the Schenkstrook area, running from the center along office buildings to the green edge of the city, had a range of atmospheres. They wanted to emphasize that in their plan for redevelopment. They chose the middle, between the Prinses Beatrixlaan and the Wilhelmina van Pruisenweg, as the area where they wanted to create an emphatically different form; albeit with existing elements available for road and park construction.
Through their efforts, this piece of road (with a length of 241 meters or 301 steps) makes its mark by a slight change of level and blue street lighting at night (Daylight/Tungsten).
The green area of the banks has been widened to twice its size, while the single lane road with adjacent bike and pedestrian lanes has been reduced to one clear, hard asphalt surface. Nature and city lie sharply contrasted next to each other without any soft transition area between traffic and greenery. Thanks to the artists' endeavours, the visual arts have become an equal partner in this public space.

See also
Exposition Metacity (1998/99)

1998