Once a vast estate, which lay like a sumptuously laid out fruit bowl, like a land of milk and honey, on the Rijnsburgerweg. Then dilapidated and mutilated, and now with Nieuweroord recovered from a historical mistake. In one of the most prestigious locations in the Randstad, a villa has been rebuilt, flanked by two wings. In a generous way, the surrounding landscape embraces the new building ensemble consisting of 87 apartments - fine floor plans with attention to light, privacy and views make each home unique. The intense relationship with the green environment contributes to the promise of the architecture of happiness.
In his 1965 novel ‘Back to Oegstgeest’, Jan Wolkers pays a visit to the house of Houtheer, ‘a multimillionaire with a vast estate, which lay on the Rijnsburgerweg like a sumptuously decorated fruit bowl, like a land of milk and honey’. Jan Wolkers was a garden boy here around 1940 when he was 15 or 16, threw chunks of bread into the clapping mouths of the noble carp and jerked off in the small wooden toilet cubicle amidst vibrating crane flies.
The origins of Nieuweroord
The history of the location begins in 1917 when A.G. Bosman left Rotterdam to buy 20 hectares of land near Leiden. H.W. Hanrath was responsible for the house and A.W. Springer for the design of the garden, both were completed around 1920. At the very tip of an old sandy dune, with a view of the Rhine valley, Nieuweroord was founded. A differentiated soil of sand, clay and heather were the prerequisites for the elevated position of the house and the layout of the richly varied garden. After the death of the paterfamilias in 1958, the house was sold, later abandoned and finally demolished in 1966. Instead, a 14-story block of nursing apartments was built and opened in 1974.
Correcting a historical mistake
In 2020, Springer’s garden has become a beloved urban forest, renamed Bosman’s Forest. While preserving the ecological values such as the rich flora and fauna, the restoration of the broom, of vistas and relief, the villa has been rebuilt stone by stone. Flanked by two four-storey wings on a semi-sunken parking garage. The symmetry of the villa located on the semi-circular driveway offers a starting point for the building mass with a modern, light-footed signature. The architecture and materialization of the wings is borrowed from the house, in which proportions, alignments, materials and subtle tonal differences show a well-thought-out interpretation. The wings relying, fanning out, with pronounced stretch layers, ribbon joints and band windows, the villa proudly upright. The villa inspires and is the crowning glory of the composition.
The intimate intertwining of building and landscape
The wings form a counter-mould to the landscape and create various green spaces. By placing the new building in the flanks, the original viewing lines remain open and the villa is given the pivotal function. The open space is shaped like an hourglass with a narrow passage at the site of the manor house. The landscape at the front and back is not brutally separated, but meaningfully connected. The wings also reach out to the landscape on the flanks. As a result, the stretched and differentiated contours of the complex leave room for a grand, individual experience of the landscape. In fact, it makes almost all apartments different from each other. With generous terraces and balconies as the continuity of their homes, all residents become the new landlords of the Bosman Forest.
