Transforming business parks into a mixed use space of integrated working, living and landscape
MADE Student Project by Jan-Lieuwe de Vries
Space is becoming increasingly scarce. Competing functions want to use the same available scarce space. This thesis focus on mixed use business parks; the spatial result of combining working, living and landscape. The purpose of this thesis is to generalize design principles for business parks, in order to diminish monofunctional developments, protect open space and stimulate housing and environmental demands. First, a literature research is done to analysis how Dutch planning is organized regarding business and housing developments and to find out which design principles can be used to combine working, living and landscape. Design principles are extracted from six concepts: compact city, mixed use development, ecosystem services, liveability, accessibility and modularity. Second, a case study approach (Plaspoelpolder in Rijswijk) is chosen to illustrate how a mix of functions may look like according to the design principles. The case study shows that the ideas of (1) integrating living, working and landscape on business parks, (2) vertical densification and (3) separate traffic flows of different users, lead to surprising efficient solutions of improved use of existing space. Lastly, the conclusion show that business parks offer enormous potential for combining work, living and landscape when applying vertical separation of functions, instead of horizontal separation, and is key to prevent further urban expansion.
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