Excerpt: WärtZ by MVRDV and Orange Architects combines housing typologies, education, facilities, and functions to create a strong social fabric and opportunities for all. The centrepiece of this new district will be the transformed former factory and warehouse of the Wärtsilä hall, with its characteristic undulating roof topped by a hovering timber apartment block. The aim is to create a green, circular, low-carbon inner-city station area, promoting sustainable mobility and circular strategies.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] A former business park alongside the railway station in the Dutch city of Zwolle will soon become a vibrant innovation district, thanks to plans assigned by area developer AM and developed by a team including MVRDV, Orange Architects, and LOLA Landscape Architects. Introducing around 850 homes, of which roughly 30 percent will be social housing, the project also includes educational institutions, workspaces for creative industries, catering, and a variety of neighbourhood facilities. The centrepiece of this new district will be the transformed former factory and warehouse of the Wärtsilä hall, with its characteristic undulating roof topped by a hovering timber apartment block.
The WärtZ masterplan, designed for area developer AM, is based on the Municipality of Zwolle’s development framework for the station zone, which aims to address energy, mobility, circularity, and climate. The plan, covering 9.5 hectares, includes three distinct areas: Spoorpark to the east, Lurelei to the west, and Werkplaatsen to the center, with buildings designed by Orange Architects and MVRDV. The plan aims to create a vibrant, sustainable, and innovative urban environment.
The Wärtsilä hall, a factory and warehouse building that was originally designed by Gert Grosfeld in 1998, sits in the very centre of the district. Standing out as the largest building in the masterplan, its undulating roof will become a visual marker of the area; it will provide an element of continuity while the character of everything below, around, and even above this roof is transformed. MVRDV’s design will allow the hall to host innovative startups and creative companies, as well as educational and research institutions.
Above the roof, a hovering wooden apartment block will form a dramatic addition to the building, solidifying the Wärtsilä hall as the anchor of the new district. This communicates the district’s ambition to provide a counterpoint to the historic city centre of Zwolle, with the eye-catching apartment block mirroring the unconventional rooftop extension of the Museum De Fundatie. This relationship is further reinforced by the addition on the roof of the Dikke Vette Gouden Vredesduif (Big Fat Golden Dove of Peace), a statue by Marte Röling.
“I consider WärtZ as the daring sister of the historic city centre”, says Doeschka Bos, development manager at AM. “The mix of housing typologies, education, facilities, and functions ensures a strong social fabric and opportunities for everyone. Entrepreneurs, educational institutions, the Spoorzone Zwolle Innovation District foundation and new Zwolle initiatives have all been involved in the planning process from the outset. We therefore ensure that the innovative ecosystem that was intended gets off the ground and comes to life immediately.”
“I think it is fantastic to breathe new life into this industrial area for AM, together with Orange Architects and LOLA Landscape Architects,” says MVRDV founding partner Jacob van Rijs. “MVRDV already has a number of transformations to its name, from our Roskilde Rock Campus to Tripolis Park in Amsterdam. This provided a lot of knowledge about how we can repurpose existing buildings in the most sustainable way possible. The Wärtsilä hall, with the new wooden residential building on top, is a good example of sustainable repurposing and densification in the city.”
In addition to the Wärtsilä hall, MVRDV’s contribution to the plan includes three mixed-use buildings, with offices on the lower levels and housing above. Clad in brick, these structures reference the hall’s roof with the curving lines that cap their ground floor windows. These, along with the Orange-designed residential buildings in Lurelei, sit within the green landscape designed by LOLA Landscape Architects. In this design, parts of the public space are returned to nature, in line with the principles of urban rewilding.
Taking advantage of its proximity to Zwolle’s station, WärtZ gives priority to walkers, cyclists, and public transport users, with attractive slow-traffic routes, multifunctional hubs for parking both cars and bicycles, a wide range of shared transport, and a Bicycle Innovation Centre. The plan fits in with the ambitions of NS and the Municipality of Zwolle for a healthy and carfree neighbourhood.
WärtZ thus has the ambition not only to create a vibrant “second city centre” on the south side of the station, but also to become an example for the whole of the Netherlands. From the goal of giving Zwolle the greenest inner-city station area in the Netherlands, to the emphasis on circular, low-carbon strategies such as reusing buildings and bio-based materials, to the introduction of sustainable mobility, WärtZ will be a standard-bearer for such “station zones” nationwide. The WärtZ innovation district will be realised in phases in the coming years. The realisation of the first phase is expected to start in 2025.
Images
