Dutch architects Ateliereen Architecten have completed a 25 metre tall viewing tower at an outdoor sports park in Reusel, the Netherlands.
The structure comprises six boxes resting on a steel, structural core and incorporates abseiling and climbing facilities.
The walls of the tower are made of halved logs, grown in the surrounding forest, which are slotted into the steel frames horizontally and vertically.
Here's some text from the architects:
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In the Netherlands over 50 spots are marked on the map as starting points for recreational use of the rural landscape.
People are encouraged to park their cars at these locations instead of at other, more preserved, areas. From here they can explore nature by foot, mountain bike, horse etc.
In the small town Reusel, the nomination motivated a local sports merchant to found an outdoor sports park.
A tower, 25 meters high, with sport facilities like climbing and abseiling is the main attraction. It consists of six cubes, hanging on a core of steel columns. Straight flight staircases raise in between and cross the cubes several times in different positions.
Two of the six cubes are accessible. The third one is the start platform for a rope slide and a high rope track. In the top box people can enjoy a panorama view of the surrounding landscape and there is a starting platform for abseiling.
The athletes on the 13 meters high climbing wall are observed by visitors of the adjacent bistro.
Huge stacks of logs can be found in the surrounding production forest. The cladding of the tower consists of the same halved, stripped logs. This way it is an addition, as well a product of it’s surroundings.
The climbing of the stairs is a surprising experience, because of the different intersections of stairs and cubes and the varying directions of the cladding.
The use of wood makes the object fit in it’s setting. The orthogonal (unnatural!) shapes on the other hand create an exciting composition.
Project information
Location: Reusel, the Netherlands
Client: assigned partial by local government, partial by merchant for outdoor sports
Architect: ateliereenarchitecten, Eindhoven, the Netherlands
Year: 2008-2009
Footprint: appr. 100 sqm
like it! integrative into the landscape and outstanding in once
beautiful project!
Well done!!
brilliant
thinking about it i think this structure is quite a good alternative to the plastic climbing walls ive seen, in terms of materials and inventiveness? of a climb, different climb variation,
very nice!
great,,!!!
Brilliant, its got a big prescence and it looks good how the light falls on it
I liked the structure, and the interactity with the tower seems so cool, I would love to try…….
When I look at this as an architect I’m amazed of the idea that climbing is combined with the other functions and that is multifunctional at all…But on the other hand it looks a bit scary. I think that maybe some colour added will “refresh” the whole composition, not necessary by using chemicals (flowers for example…)
yay…it’s a jungle gym for adults…which begs the question…when will city playgrounds beging offering more post kindergarden activities? Can any lawyer tell us?
fun project
That defenetly burns excellent
looks really intereting and full of adventure
They totally ripped off one of my houses in Sims 2!
haha at joe : )
greatest climbing tower project , i think it will be better if have drinking bar on top (view point))
best climbing twer in world and really good idea to combine view point tower function togehter, it feel like prize when we pass some thing hard, but it will be nicer if have bar on top
decent, inteligent, useful, like a purified thought of architecture, landscape, materials…example to learn from
I don’t see anything interesting in this project. I think this is a very fake concept. The skin is made of wood, but the structure is made of steel. That is also quite hypocrite. However, if you want to be coooool this the way to achieve it.
Details please! No helpful information about the wood-steel interface is given…people care about this information.
‘out of the box’ – why is it hypocritical to use a steel structure and wood cladding? at least the expression is honest–the architects are not trying to conceal the two systems.
awesome design guys!! great inspiration.
Is it just for clubing?
Creative design – workedout well – Need to think about durability