On 30 June 2022, the Katwijk City Council approved the zoning plan for Valkenhorst designed by KCAP. This coastal town of 14 000 inhabitants will be able to welcome 13 000 new inhabitants. The first housings will be completed in 2024.
© KCAP + Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners
A former military airfield urbanized
Launch in 2018, this new project will permit to transform the former military airfield of Valkenburg into new urban masterpiece. Open in 1939, this military airfield has been closed since 2006.
© KCAP + Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners
The Framework Plan was approved in 2020. Now, the urban plan has also been approved by the authorities. KCAP is in charge of the first subarea of Valkenhorst which is located between the dune and a motorway.
© KCAP + Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners
How to double the size of a village?
The stake of this urban project is enormous. In fact, the size of this Netherlands city is composed of 14 000 inhabitants. Tomorrow, Katwijk will have 27 000 inhabitants with the construction of 5 600 Housing-units.
© KCAP + Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners
"Developing a new village is a special and complex task. The design must be flexible enough to allow for changes over time, so it is best not to create a binding blueprint but a framework of main outlines instead. At the same time, we need to build more than just physical space, namely a community," says Jeroen Dirckx, partner at KCAP.
© KCAP + Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners
KCAP has completed two documents, in first a Framework Plan which consists to plan the project. The second document is a Quality Book which defines the expectations of the public spaces, the subarea development and the individual building. These are the both documents have been validated by the Katwijk City Council.
© KCAP + Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners
The first Housing-units expected for 2024
Fortunately, the developer BDP will not build the entirety of this project in one shot. This urban project is divided by phase and subarea. The Limes Quarter will be the first step with 700 housing-units from 2024.
© KCAP + Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners
In addition, the urban planners of KCAP provide many plots with different sizes but also some plots dedicated to the auto-construction. The goal is to allow architectural diversity and avoid a negative effect.
For the first subarea, the urban planners of KCAP have provided a large proportion of affordable owner-occupied and social rented housing. This Valkenhorst neighborhood will be energy-neutral and nature-inclusive.
© KCAP + Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners
- Location: Katwijk, the Netherlands
- Client: Rijksvastgoedbedrijf, BPD Bouwfonds Property Development
- Year: 2018 - present
- Status: Ongoing
- Program: appr. 110 ha, containing appr. 59 ha start location. Urban transformation of former military airfield to a town of appr. 5.600 residential units, workspace, services, ecological development, energy generation, mobility hub and leisure
- Architect: KCAP (integral urban framework, Q-book, urban vision and urban plan Limesbuurt (BPD property))
- Collaborators: Felixx Landscape Architects & Planners (Q-book), Katwijk Municipality, Province of Noord-Holland
