Buitenplaats (Estate) Koningsweg by Buro Harro

A former German barracks site from WWII north of Arnhem has been transformed into a cultural enclave on the Veluwe, where people live, creatives work, and visitors can holiday.

The rather obscure forest zone to the north of Arnhem—fragmented by fences, roads, and military sites—resulted in poor connectivity between Arnhem city and the Veluwe nature area. In 2008, Harro and artist Hans Jungerius conceived that the barracks to the north of Arnhem should become a cultural enclave acting as a stepping-stone between the green and creative city of Arnhem and the nearby Hoge Veluwe National Park and the Kröller-Müller Museum.

It is a destination where landscape, history, and culture intertwine. Besides reconnecting Arnhem and the Veluwe, Buitenplaats Koningsweg also reveals the bizarre military history of the area. The barracks were part of “Fliegerhorst Deelen,” the German WWII airfield with numerous barracks, housing, and hangars disguised as farmland and villages to deceive the Allies.
Hans and Harro approached the developer Kondor Wessels Projecten (KWP), who then acquired the land. In collaboration with MVRDV architects, Buroharro created the master plan and visual quality plan for the site and after that Buroharro drew up the landscape design plan.

The hardened terrain, taken over by the military since WWII, has been reabsorbed into the Veluwe landscape, now laid like a trusted blanket over the natural terrain. The transformed and new buildings rest on pedestals like huts in the heath. The landscape serves as a shared garden for the community that lives, works, and recreates there. Buildings are mostly “cold” in the landscape—meaning without fencing or private yards—and the outdoor spaces are seamlessly integrated into the architectural design, avoiding fragmentation. Living here always feels like you are on a holiday.

In the “Zeven Provinciën” section, where seven “farmhouses” (with sheet metal shutters) surround a field, the gardens are intentionally part of the agrarian camouflage. The often nationally protected military buildings have been converted into studios and homes, with new elements clearly distinguishable by their dark gray color, as specified. Much of the poor architecture from the 1980s and extensive paving has been replaced by the Veluwe nature. Eleven “follies” were added through a competition—architecturally refined, nature-inclusive holiday homes themed around “camouflage” (the same theme the nazi’s used in WOII) that surprise and amuse, blending remarkably well into the new Veluwe landscape. They represent the 21st-century layer, added as a permanent cultural exhibition. Because these follies must also be rented out, everyone can explore the terrain, its beautiful and bizarre surroundings, and its rich history. The fences around the area have largely been removed, making the Veluwe less fragmented and this unique region increasingly accessible to both people and animals.

Unique Aspects

•The terrain is a camouflaged former German WO2-militairy base, part of a huge military airport. Formerly unknown, nowadays a new hotspot.
•The project shows how nature development and housing can go hand in hand.
•The projects is self-initiated by landscape architect Harro de Jong (Buroharro) together with artist Hans Jungerius in 2008. Buroharro itself soon settled on the site. Over the years, Buroharro has been initiator, designer of the overall concept, designer of the Masterplan with MVRDV, landscape architect, part-time contact-point, designer of Quality Plan and jury of the Follies and in the meantime part of the landscape maintenance team.
•Buitenplaats Koningsweg is a stepping-stone between the green and creative city of Arnhem and National Park ‘de Hoge Veluwe’, with the famous museum Kröller Müller.
•The landscape is communal, with little private property.
•The site was meant to be and has become a cultural enclave. Numerous (well-known) creative residents, such as Hella Jongerius, Florentijn Hofman, and Patrick Nederkoorn, live and work here nowadays.
•The Follies, a permanent architectural exhibition of 11 iconic architectural holiday-houses have become an architectonic and touristic attraction from where outsiders can explore the site and extraordinary natural and historic surroundings.
•Large patches of buildings, concrete and asphalt has been transformed into nature, through the new technique of ‘nature transplantation’. The sods of a piece of adjacent (military) heathland have been cut (a form of nature preservation maintenance that already takes place anyway) and this material has been sprinkled over the barren sand that was underneath the pavement and has gently been shaped. Nowadays the heather starts to grow everywhere.
•The surroundings have been “unlocked,” allowing people and wildlife—such as red deer and wolf—to roam around freely.
•A 7-series TV program about the transformation of Buitenplaats Koningsweg aired on the NPO (the Dutch Public Broadcaster) in 2024.