• location: Rotterdam
• program: Highway A13/A16, infrastructural works
• client: Rijkswaterstaat and regional and municipal parties
• design: 2013-2014
• design team: Bekkering Adams architects: Juliette Bekkering, Monica Adams, Frank de Vleeschhouwer Landscape architects: Feddes/Olthof Landscape architects

The design for the “Coherent Strategy” for the new highway-bypass of the ring of Rotterdam: A13 / A16 was a cooperation of Bekkering Adams architects with Feddes / Olthof landscape architects. The Highway in this design has been linked to the landscape as a 'green ribbon' in a “diabolical” highway. The highway track has two characters: a polder part with a wide profile and a park-like part with an enclosed profile. The infrastructural works are planned as a 'family of structures', with a common architectural expression. An important aspect of this “family of structures” is the interplay between the design of the infrastructural elements and the surrounding landscape.

Main themes for the integration of the road in the area are "stretched landscape" and a "braiding of roads and trails”. The theme of the stretched landscapes' is about reducing fragmentation. In a "braid" of routes, the development of cycling and hiking trails is an important aspect in the design: both parallel to, and perpendicular to the highway.

The highway track contains two nodes, two turns, two aqueducts, underpasses, embankments, acoustic landscape, recreation/viaduct and a tunnel.

The existing situation of isolated green spaces has been turned into an interlinked chain of parks and recreation areas.

Architecturally the design gets cohesion, through the development of the infrastructural works as recognizable elements: on the one hand with sturdy and sculptural elements, so characteristic for Rotterdam and on the other hand an integration of the infrastructural elements in the landscape; soft and landscaped.

The “Coherent Strategy” will be further elaborated in the Draft Design HighwayA13/A16 of Rijkswaterstaat and the urban plans of regional parties.