Buitenplaats Koningsweg began its life as two facilities, Kamp Koningsweg Noord and Zeven Provinciën. These were built in the orbit of the Deelen airfield, which during the Second World War was the largest German airfield in the Netherlands. The concrete military bunkers were disguised as farmhouses in an attempt to obscure their military purpose, allowing them to blend into the surrounding nature. These natural surroundings add another layer of significance: the project sits in the forests of the Veluwe, one of the Netherlands’ most important natural areas, and the largest land-based Natura 2000-designated area in the country.

“An unusual aspect of Buitenplaats Koningsweg is that the buildings that were designed, from the very start, to disguise their true nature”, says MVRDV founding partner Nathalie de Vries. “We asked ourselves, how could modern interventions help to draw attention to their history, while preserving the integrity of that disguise? Our answer was to make any changes hyper-legible. The clear delineation between the old, new, and reconstructed elements, along with the unexpected details such as the metre-thick bunker walls of the historic buildings, help people to intuitively see the site’s story.”

Pictured: transformation of  the KKN4, 5, and 6 buildings by Hoogte 2 Architecten according to the masterplan