Tuin van Delft by BOOM Landscape

How do you recreate an area defined by movement, flow, and bundled infrastructure to a tranquil place where passerby’s are invited to pause, slow down and linger?

The commission
It sounds like a contradictory brief and objective: to create a climate-resilient and decelerating place at Houttuinplein in Delft, wedged between the bulwark, ‘het Huis van Delft’ (House of Delft), the station hall, and atop the Willem van Oranje tunnel. Despite the complexity of the task, BOOM Landscape managed to create a small oasis amidst the hustle and bustle of the station area called the Tuin van Delft (Garden of Delft). Visitors are warmly welcomed onto a circular carpet of artisanal paving patterns that invite them to stay awhile. The seemingly tranquil nature of the carpet hides the technical design that not only enables the garden to thrive on this challenging location but also provides a broader contribution to climate resilience, circularity, and the cultural heritage of the city.

Background
Since 2004, the Delft station area has been undergoing continuous development. The construction of the Willem van Oranje tunnel marked the start of ‘New Delft’, an urban development that launched ambitious projects such as a new station hall and ‘het Huis van Delft, a mixed-use building next to Delft Station, containing studios, workspaces, and exhibition spaces for innovators and makers connected to the city. Between these new icons, the municipality of Delft envisioned a place that could counterbalance the scale and intensity of the area. Simultaneously this place was to become the square that would connect the surrounding buildings on a historical, cultural, and innovative level. BOOM’s design was unanimously selected by the jury in 2021 and was enthusiastically embraced by the residents of Delft. In 2024, the design was realized.

Oasis of Tranquility
The Tuin van Delft has become a serene place, featuring a planting scheme by Jacqueline van der Kloet, whose colour palette is based on the work of the Old Masters from Delft. The assortment of flowers, plants and trees is lush and diverse, and as they mature, they will provide shade thereby buffering visitors from the surrounding commotion. By slightly raising the square with a 15-centimetre step, the garden has become a pedestrian-only domain. The routing has been designed in such a way that the shortest path to the station does not cut through the heart of the square, allowing meandering rather than hurried visitors to take centerstage. The planting is entirely bordered by a continuous seating edge, extended enough for everyone to find a spot. The height of this edge was determined through research aimed at achieving the highest possible degree of inclusivity. The paving—laid like a carpet of patterns—forms the final invitation to stay.

The Carpet
By laying the paving as a carpet, a living room-like atmosphere is created that invites visitors to settle in and feel welcome. The carpet also forms a visual and spatial link between the House of Delft and the City Office, with the facade grid of the House of Delft echoed in the paving layout. Where the House of Delft is an ode to innovation and iconic design, the Tuin van Delft is a tribute to craft and workmanship. The Delft tradition of paving is expressed through a patchwork of paving patterns inspired by existing examples found elsewhere in the city. This connection to tradition extends to execution: the paving was laid by craftspeople from disappearing trades, using leftover batches of stones sourced from Delft and The Hague. In this way, the homage to the past simultaneously offers a gesture towards the future, with the use of reclaimed materials enabling the square to be constructed in a nearly fully circular way.

Water Retention Buffer System
The calming and seemingly simple atmosphere experienced by visitors conceals the inventive design that made it possible to build a climate-adaptive garden atop the infrastructure of the Willem van Oranje tunnel. To minimize the use of plastic and other non-biodegradable materials while ensuring water retention for the planting, a Water Retention Buffer System was designed in collaboration with engineer Francien van Kempen. Instead of the standard plastic crates, a layer of clay and gravel was applied on top of the sand layer covering the tunnel. This gravel buffer ensures that the plants have sufficient water during dry spells but can also absorb excess rainwater during peak showers. In extreme rainfall conditions, excess water is discharged into the adjacent canal via an overflow.
The climate-adaptive design has created a healthy garden that is internally a livable place – offering shade and cooling that attracts people, bees, butterflies, insects and birds – while also addressing external climate challenges.

Simplicity and Innovation
The Tuin van Delft has become a special place that captures the essence of a challenging task in a space that radiates simplicity and harmony, made possible by an innovative design that honours nature, people, culture and engineering. The garden reflects its immediate surroundings, the city at large, and Delft’s cultural and social history, making it a grounded space that engages in a dialogue between past, present, and future.

• Other landscape architecture offices involved in the design of the landscape:
BOOM Landscape

• Other credits:
pictures: Andrew Campion
engineering: Francien van Kempen
Planting scheme: Jaqueline van de Kloet

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