H+N+S Landscape Architects

H+N+S has through an engineering approach successfully developed large scale thinking about landscape, integrating aspects concerning energy, environment, well-being and aesthetics. They feature a consistent opus of brave interventions in landscape, often with ingenious and innovative solutions. H+N+S is a relevant force in our common task to find and develop new tools for overcoming the challenges concerning landscape today and in the future.

H+N+S yet again conquered the infrastructure category! N69 is a story on how to make roads more green. It is also about how people driving these roads can experience the essence of the surrounding landscape much better. In large part, it concerns the profile/section of the road where the quantity of the asphalt is reduced to the minimum and where the road is stripped of other elements. The animals are welcome to cross the road through a sequence of underpasses but also on the road, as, due to the fence-free profile, the visibility is much improved.

More or less linear masses of trees try to remain as uninterrupted as possible when crossing the road so birds can be protected while flying back and forth. A part of the road is lifted on the bridge so the animals can move seamlessly on the grounds.
This is how we should do roads.

H+N+S have, in their very own Dutch way, invented a new dike typology – innovative terrain modelling for more efficient and sustainable land use and simpler maintenance.

The project Objets Trouvés convinces with outstanding artistic quality and visible historical awareness. Moving the bunker from its ancestral place and letting it re-appear in a new one is both astonishing and effective. This blunt dislocation, which first reacts to infrastructural requirements and finally turns the bunker into a ready-made, creates a whole new quality of visual perception. It is in this aesthetic space of resonance, where contemporary infrastructure development ultimately becomes conceivable as a possible instalment of the European warfare history. Consequently, the actual traces of history are kept visible with a genuine purpose – although this required such an action as moving a bunker. As a bold and even radical gesture, the project inscribes itself in the infusible tension between past, present, and future on the one hand, and between absence and presence on the other. In doing so, it formulates a notable reference point for the contemporary discipline of landscape architecture as an artistically informed cultural practice.

During the renovation of the previously closed sanatorium complex, a protected national monument, maximum effort was made on ‘preservation through development’. The realization of a number of carefully fitted new homes allowed the historic complex, including the garden and park, to be restored. The combination of old and new construction provides surprising perspectives in the […]

South of Zwolle lies the historic and relatively unknown Windesheim estate. At the back of the site the remains of a garden from the 18th century, the estate’s earliest period, have been wonderfully preserved. The garden’s 18th century water and path structure formed the basis for its renewal. Windesheim, a historic country seat of the […]

The Netherlands has a long history when it comes to water safety. Yet, even for the Dutch, the Reevediep is a unique project. The creation of this new delta landscape marks the successful completion of the national Room for the River Program. To enable the IJssel to discharge a larger volume of water, a new […]

Where river and city, nature and men meet – clotted in steel and wood Water Wood is situated at the Brienenoord Island with it’s mesmerizing views on both the city skyline and the iconic Brienenoord bridge, where ships pass by daily and nature flourishes. This point offers a unique place to experience the relationship between […]

In order to ensure safe water flow from the IJssel river, a new riverbranch has been designed in the IJsseldelta. The water will now flow on two sides along the city of Kampen to the IJsselmeer (IJssel lake). The new river called ‘Reevediep’ starts narrow on the IJssel and widens further downstream. This new Dutch […]

The design of the Central Axis (N356) and the integration of the motorway into the northern Frisian landscape was considered a cultural challenge due to its high sensitivity. The designers faced this challenge by obtaining a cautious integral design approach. This not only applies to the structures along the motorway itself but also to the […]

ROOM FOR THE RIVER The Zalige bridge in Nijmegen is the key project within the Urban River Park that was created as part of Room for the River Waal. This is a nation-wide program initiated by the ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment to prevent flooding. Along the historic city centre of Nijmegen the river […]