The Hague is a city of long lines, parks and squares. Yet upon arrival at Den Haag central station you hardly notice this. You are surrounded by stone, concrete and infrastructure with mostly inaccessible ground levels (plinth). There are very few places to stop and stay. Many conflicts between mobility, infrastructure and public space create an unpleasant and unsafe place for pedestrians and cyclists. How could this have happened?
Instead, imagine arriving in the heart of The Hague in an active raised city park instead: the Green Passage. An elevated ground level and the reuse of existing infrastructure can help resolve conflicts, turning current mobility barriers into opportunities. Imagine a green layered landscape with connections on several levels, space for new passages, space for new forms of mobility, space for connections between work, culture, living and staying. Imagine this area with more homes, more offices, more facilities, more mobility and more public space.
The multiple layers of the Green Passage form a rolling landscape that will connect in all directions to define a new central station heart. The enormous densification planned in this area requires a multi-layer ground level, a stacked landscape. You can consider this a “super plinth” with programmable spaces that connect and form a transition between government and innovative start-ups, residents, scientists, students and entrepreneurs.
It will be a rich experience with a wide variety of functions, both embedded within and projecting high above, such as cultural institutions, ministries, universities, living and activity. A place where the city is, in the broadest sense, unfolding into its surrounding. The Green Passage offers not only a new eye-level perspective for the city but a new skyline as crown for our royal city.