5 questions to: NVTL member Vita Teunissen
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5 questions to is a recurring feature on NVTL.nl and in (Dutch) newsletter Het Kanaal. We feature a variety of members: long-time members, new members, student members and office members. Would you also like to participate or nominate someone? Send us an email.
Can you tell a little more about your background and how your passion for (landscape) architecture was born?
As a child, I wanted to be a restoration architect. Thus, I studied Architecture at TU Delft, and next Architectural History at VU Amsterdam. I therefore have a dual background as a researcher and designer. During my internship at SteenhuisMeurs, those two languages came together.
Through SteenhuisMeurs I found a special graduation project. Jan Janse of the The Dutch State Forest Service pointed me to a unique spot in the Biesbosch, only accessible by water. From the forest rangers I borrowed a boat to sail to the Amaliapolder. Above one of the dikes loomed the large Amaliahoeve. The farm was built in 1938 by a Belgian banker who had heard that the Biesbosch would be reclaimed. He built a huge granary, but the reclamation never happened, and now that big farm just stands there on the small island. As a new interpretation, I designed a nature hotel in the stables, a meeting space in the big barn and a contemplative walk across the island, past the places where the water was reintroduced into the old polder island.
The Amaliahoeve in the Biesbosch
You are a partner and architect-researcher at SteenhuisMeurs, what kind of projects are you working on?
After my internship I was allowed to continue working at SteenhuisMeurs, and in 2022 I became the third partner of Marinke Steenhuis and Paul Meurs. SteenhuisMeurs is a cultural history research and consulting firm. We visualise the genesis of an area or building in order to inspire future developments and determine the payload for change. The work is diverse, ranging from buildings to large areas such as Het Groene Hart.
We are now completing a handbook for the sandwall landscape near Ouddorp on Goeree Overflakkee. The central question is how to preserve the unique qualities of this small-scale landscape without restricting spatial development. For the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed we are working on an inventory and selection of residential neighborhoods from the Post65 period (1965-1990) with high quality landscaping. Think Houten, Molenhoek in Rosmalen and Emmerhout in Emmen.
Schematic representation of the development of the sandwall landscape in Ouddorp
How do you ensure that cultural history is not just the backdrop, but genuinely guides you in addressing current spatial challenges?
Cultural history is not just about spatial history, but also about the relationship between the subsurface, the use of space and people. With an understanding of history comes pride, comfort and then mental space to think about change.
So much inspiration can be found in the historical development of a building or an area. At the Binnenhof, we discovered that there used to be a countess’ garden behind the Ridderzaal. Now there will be another garden on that spot to green up the Binnenhof. And the moat will also return, for security – just like in the days of the Dutch counts. Behind an old and historically layered complex such as the Binnenhof, spatial logic forms the basis for design choices. In a project like the Binnenhof, where many teams work on different parts, it was nice to interpret the complex from the perspective of spatial coherence.
To give direction to new developments on the basis of cultural history, we draw up transformation frameworks – that is a translation of the cultural-historical value assessment, in which the loading capacity of a place is determined and illustrated. Together with the RCE, we made a guide to transformation frameworks, which can be found here.
The ‘palette’ of the medieval Binnenhof, with the Countess Garden behind the Count’s Halls
Together with Young NVTL and your colleague Marinke Steenhuis, you have set up a reading club around professional literature in landscape architecture. Suppose you were allowed to pick one book that inspires you and that you think is really a must-read for our members, which book would it be, and why?
I hope we will still read Landscape and Memory by Simon Schama. And in Edmund Burke’s search for the Sublime, I recognise a longing for grand feelings and ultimate beauty amid doom scrolling, half-minute movies and spatial compromises. It’s an old text, but fine reading. But more importantly, summer is coming – I want to recommend a novel for poolside, in the mountains or just in garden. The Blur of the World, by Iris Wolff:
‘You had the grey of the sky. The river and the meadows. The vast plain and the solitude. You had the edge and the middle. The yes and the no. The uncertainty. And yet, Florentine thought, this landscape leaves you as you are’.
What is your favourite place or landscape in the Netherlands?
I grew up in Haarlemmermeer, but my family lived near Groesbeeks Plateau. They are two completely opposite landscapes. I know the plateau in northern Limburg mainly in winter, when the hills are completely covered and look like gigantic mounds of autumn leaves, with tree trunks sticking up out of them. That’s where my love of hiking began. I know every route – it is not such a big area – and can wander around carefree.
