ENCI Overgangzone

Transformation of industrial quarry into public landscape

After a century of industrial excavation a 100 hectare sandstone quarry will be transformed into a natural reserve and a public recreational landscape.  “Reconciling the irreconcilable” became the motto under which an unusual collaboration between a multinational industry, a national nature preservation society, a neighbourhood association, the province and the municipality was forged. They agreed to collaborate in the creation of a unique environment where human and natural developments thrive alongside. Our office has been involved since the very beginning of this process. First, in helping the parties imagine the spatial possibilities of their collaboration. Later, in the realisation of these possibilities through design and construction.

The overgangszone is a part of the quarry where light development can take place in order to facilate recreational programs. The income will be used to maintain the quarry. The project consists of a microtypography that organizes the area into several plots and manages the waterflows that emerge from underground basins at several points of the site. Unique calcareous vegetation is seperate the plots and create intimate places with views over the quarry.