In a ceremony yesterday in Otterlo, MVRDV – along with the National Park Hoge Veluwe, Antea Group, Wolfswinkel BV, and H+N+S Landscape architects – celebrated the topping out of a new Porter’s Lodge at the western entrance to the Hoge Veluwe National Park. Replacing MVRDV’s previous design for the Otterlo Lodge, which was built in 1996, the new lodge provides a new, more sustainable interpretation of the original lodge concept, which saw the shape of the archetypical house distorted according to the conditions of each site.

Almost 30 years after the completion of the original lodges, broad changes in society and the functioning of the National Park have rendered them no longer fit for purpose. The entrance road is being redesigned to allow for better flow of pedestrians, cyclists, cars, and buses, which necessitated a relocation of the porter’s lodge. Meanwhile, functional issues such as their suitability for a largely cashless society, when they were original designed to accommodate cash transactions, make them difficult to adapt to the present day.

For the new design of the Otterlo Lodge, MVRDV looked at the principles of open building to envisage a more long-term, sustainable alternative. The lodge is constructed of a low-carbon concrete shell, wrapped in a metal mesh layer that encourages climbing plants. This primary structure could host various functions over time, potentially extending its lifespan well into the 22nd century; within it, a lighter structure of wood provides the spatial layout, so that different elements can be replaced according to their different lifespans. With this principle, if the lodge’s spatial layout is again outdated in a few decades, this can be changed without demolishing the more long-lasting elements such as the structure and façade.

The new Porter’s Lodge in Otterlo is expected to be completed in early summer.