OMA, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, recently [ in 2008] presented a vision for the regeneration of the Hague industrial area known as Binckhorst. A public debate, at which the municipal authorities – and OMA – were conspicuous by their absence, revealed that not everyone was equally enthusiastic.
Artist impressions dominated the debate. As columnist Julius Pasgeld put it in his trenchant article: ‘In the revamped Binckhorst the buildings are all a transparent grey, it’s always spring and the workers take a day-long lunch break.’ He thus went straight to the heart of the matter. There is no suggestion of a masterplan in the classic sense. What is actually waiting for approval by the Hague city council are a series of towering ambitions, artist impressions, a simple zoning model, a PPS development company and a colossal square-metre package still to be realized.
