Veenhuizen has a special way to spend the night this summer. Through ‘Veen|House|Hotel’ you can camp in a hotel room and experience the landscape in a special way.
Sometimes you have to overcome a loose sand path by bike, you shouldn’t be shocked if a group of pinkies is curiously looking at you, but then you also have something. At seven places around Veenhuizen, there are small temporary buildings in the green where two people can sleep. Architects from all over the Netherlands have gone out of their way to make something special out of it.
Create extra space
Loes Talens of hotel restaurant Bitter en Zoet came up with the idea through the performance Het Pauperparadijs. Suddenly many more hotel rooms were needed than there are in the village. How can you temporarily create extra space?
This is how the Veen|House|Hotel project was born. “You can book through our website and then you can rent a bicycle from us to go to your room,” she says. “You get a bottle of water and can experience the landscape in a very special way in your room.” After a night in the countryside, guests are welcome at Bitter en Zoet for breakfast.
In the end, this has not become the way to accommodate the many visitors to the Pauper Paradise, but a combination of architecture, sustainability and recreation. The rooms are all built with materials harvested in the area (straw for example) or found. Guests find a nicely made bed in their hotel room, but there is no running water. There is a compost toilet.
Cold spring
The first guests have already been there in May and they noticed that it was a relatively cold spring. “Well, with a few extra blankets this was quickly resolved,” says Talens.
The Rotterdam architect Maarten Suykerbuyk is delighted that he was allowed to participate with his office TMOJ. Together with partner Tom Hulsman, he could go all out on the ‘BioBeest’ design (a pun on biobased), built on a farm.
“As young architects, we realize that we have to build in a different, more environmentally friendly way. But in practice this is often difficult. Contractors, for example, find it difficult to do things differently than they always did. We could really enjoy ourselves here.”
The result is a wooden building that breathes like a fish. In front of the windows hang a kind of panels that are covered with paper from the mulberry tree. “So you can close it at night and when you open it in the morning, the fresh air flows in. They are like the gills of a fish.” Grass is planned on the roof of the hotel room. Behind the building is a rain barrel, with a pump that receives power from a solar collector. During drought, the grass receives water from the rain barrel.
Roof tiles
“Would you like to borrow that pile of roof tiles? Yes, take it with me.” Architects Reinder Bakker and Hester van Dijk of Overtreders W bureau from Amsterdam were surprised by the geniality of Drenthe when they were looking for building materials for their ‘Stapel Op’ from farmers. The building is completely composed of surplus material that they found in the area, such as beams, corrugated iron and the like. “We didn’t saw or drill anything,” says Bakker. “So when we dismantle the room at the end of October, the material is still completely intact.” Lashing straps hold all parts together.
The project is led by Ype van Gorkum and Irene Fortuyn. They received a lot of support from the province. In addition to tourists and architects, it is also aimed at farmers. “We want to show that agriculture can also contribute to clean construction of homes and offices,” says Van Gorkum. “Take fiber hemp, for example, which grows everywhere and you can make very strong material from it.” “In this environment, close to two nature reserves, people choose to make plans for nature restoration and more environmentally friendly agriculture without us coming up against each other,” adds Fortuyn.