Lankheet water purification park: a pleasant and functional water garden

A water purification plant, but at the same time a public water park and a nature area: this combination can be found on the Lankheet country estate. The aim of the water purification park is to develop reed lands that purify stream water, produce biomass for green energy or fuel, and provide a study ground for fundamental scientific research on the cleansing of surface water using reed filters. At the same time, this scientific experiment is also designed as a poetic water spectacle.

 The layout of the reed fields forms the framework of the water garden. Because one side of several fields has been made slanting for technical reasons, a system of linear and meandering paths results. On the east side a clear-cut boundary is formed by an undulating curved panoramic dike that is both spatial spine and observatory point. In the water garden, the working of the purification system and the course of the water in that process have been made as clear as possible.

The water purification is regarded as a ‘blue service’, meaning that the water board pays the country estate for its purifying activity, and thereby forms a new economic support for the country estate. The water of the Buurserbeek is let into the purification park, cleansed, and channelled back into the stream.

Project Data

Landscape Architecture: Strootman

In cooperation with: 
Wageningen Universiteit en Researchcentrum (Plant Research International, Alterra)
Design year: 2004-2005
Year Built: 2005-2007