Yerseke 'de Zaete'
Space&matter was invited to pitch their design ideas for a supervisor position in Yerseke, the world's nursery for oysters and mussels. The new development, initiated by a combination of market parties needed to attract tourism. A large program, containing a wellness center, museum, hotel, research institute and luxury apartments was to be build next to the renowned, historical but still in use oyster pits (heated water basins for storing oysters). We were charmed by the authentic and rugged character of these pits and feared that a bulky and iconographic tourist development would destroy the subtle elegance of this working landscape.
The dike at the fringe of the site and typical for this region, led us to the idea to cover up most of the abundant program with landscape and only let small doses of volume pop out of the green. A large scale development would therefore be possible while preserving the small scale appearance of the context. To better facilitate tourism we proposed an elevated boardwalk through the oyster pits to create both overview and insight in the local oyster culture. With this new tourist feature the work at the pits is able to proceed without being bothered by nosey visitors.
background image: The storage buildings in the oysterpits in Yerseke have a particular way of dealing with the dikelandscape.
invited competition
clients
Toplevel development
AM Zeeland
R&D wonen
year
2011
