Creating the fringes

摘要

Ever since 1659, the 'ring canal' in Leiden called Singel has formed the border of the inner city. However, nowadays its structure lacks unity. Two years ago, there was a citizen's petition urging the idea to renovate the Singelpark. The city council of Leiden supported this initiative and held a competition with two prizewinners as its outcome - LOLA landscape architects from Rotterdam and Studio Karst from Zurich. LOLA has chosen to create a linear park, a park very much longer than it is wide. This type of park tends to connect, and in crowded cities tends to create space as well as biodiversity.