Berenklauw – Proposal for Parking Nieuwegein
Title: Berenklauw
Project: Applied art inside parking garage P6, Stadsplein Nieuwegein
Project: Proposal (sketches for invited pitch), September 6, 2010
Client: Gemeente Nieuwegein
Advisor: Lia Gieling
Nieuwegein, a new town southwest of Utrecht, is rigorously updating its city center. Next to the new city theatre (left), a parking garage, P6 (right) designed by KCAP, will be build.
P6 is part of the Garage collection, a program to give all garages their own identity through art. The chosen design will be printed on durable inkjet prints, that are applied to backlit plexiglass walls inside each garage. The design should have both a practical (wayfinding in direction of elevators), and a decorational (emphasise Nieuwgein as a car minded new town).
KCAP’s design of the building’s façade integrates both abstracted bamboo patterns, and living bamboo, a strong plant with enormous power. The Dutch equivalent would be a fast and tall growing weed called ‘Reuzenberenklauw’ (Giant Hogweed).
Otto Thomé’s Flora (appr. 1885) a classic and beautifully illustrated guidebook that is still used by many.
I proposed to project classic drawings of typical and common weeds on to the surface of the inner walls of the garage.
Each garage has it’s own interior colour. For P6, the color green is a given fact. In my proposal, I only use the fullest green that can be printed from CMYK printer inks, plus black.
By playing with contrasts (green, open, black), texture (line drawing, pixelised historical drawings), and scale (viewing from a distance, close up), lively and playful compositions should appear that give each floor and section it’s own character.
Thematicly connected patterns inside the design’s shapes, like the Daddy Longlegs insects and the flying ducks, enhance a sense of direction.
Sketch overview
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the project, but the multitalented Margit Lukacs & Persijn Broersen (we graduated at the Rietveld Academie’s graphic design department in the same year) did.