Junne Estate [NL]
At the riverside of the ‘Overijsselse Vecht’, a river in the east of the Netherlands lies the estate Junne. This more than a 600 hectare parkland offers forests, a river valley, river dunes, heather landscape and a small hamlet with clustered farms embedded in it’s surrounding meadows and fields. It is a place where you can enjoy peace and quiet and it seems as if time stood still here.
Development strategy for future Junne
To preserve and protect this natural and cultural heritage, the parkland needs a new qualitative and economical impulse. BOOM Landscape made a development strategy based on three pillars; to reveal Junne’s beautiful variety of landscape typologies, to make the hamlet Junne more viable by a clever densifying strategy, and to improve and expand the recreational facilities.
Atypical estate with unique variety of landscape typologies
Junne is an atypical estate considering it has no formal historical manor, cottages, ornamental landscape gardens, ponds or bridges. What makes this parkland special is the fact that it has a unique variety of landscape typologies quite close to each other; the valley of the Overijsselse Vecht, the river dunes, a production forest, the heather and the old hamlet with its beautiful old characteristic farmhouses, barns, and surrounding farmlands. Rare typologies that became less and less recognizable over time; the Overijsselse Vecht lost it’s dynamic character when it was canalized and diverted, the farm mounds (altered over hundreds of years with manure and organic material) were flattened by the use of fertilizer. Also, the parkland was more and more covered with forests and lost it’s originally more open character with dunes and moorland caused by grazing cattle.
Re
Restoring blurred landscape characteristics
In our proposal for Junne we introduce and reinforce the overtime disappeared and ‘blurred’ landscape characteristics of every specific landscape typology, to reveal it’s beauty and make them perceptible to the public. For the valley of the Vecht, we preserve its open character and emphasize the valley outline by planting. In the strategy, we prevent the old meanders of the Vecht from drying out.
Parts of the river dune landscape will be cleared from forest to reveal the impressive pointy river dunes. The irregular shape of the river landscape with its meanders and river dunes make a beautiful contrast with the rectilinear structure of the production forest. Through the linear production forest, BOOM created a new ecological corridor with flowery grassland and heather to increase the spatial and ecological value of the forest.
The man-made agricultural landscape around the hamlet Junne with its remarkable mounds, created by farmers during centuries of fertilization with sods and manure, is maintained as cultural heritage. New hedgerows will highlight the edges of the mounds. The agricultural activities remain but preferably with traditional crops, to prevent the mounds from further flattening. 
Densification: combining original DNA with modern architecture
To make the estate economically more profitable and improve the liveability of the hamlet, Junne needs to densify. The new housing is planned on former locations of houses and farms that once use to be part of the estate. Though the architecture of the new housing is modern, typology, size, and orientation are all based on the original DNA of Junne; clustered farms at the crossings of roads and on the edge of the farmland mounds. This typology was further characterized by differences in roof shapes, size, and orientation. Because the redevelopment must enhance the quality of life in the (ageing) neighbourhood, only permanent habitation is allowed.
Modern leisure Junne style
Finally, our vision focuses on expanding recreational opportunities at Junne estate. June parkland currently has no commercial facilities at all. A missed opportunity to generate additional income and allow visitors to stay longer and enjoy this beautiful area. The estate offers enough space for, for example, recreational homes, studio residences or catering facilities, such as a tea house on the Vecht. BOOM introduced a palette of small-scale facilities that are carefully blended into the landscape and emphasize the different landscape typologies. Recreational opportunities that also match the latest trends and thus clearly distinguish themselves from the dated range of facilities around the Vecht. With a more tough and rugged character, characteristic of Junne estate!
