Bicycle and pedestrian tunnels, Drachtserplein, Leeuwarden

Year:	2013
Location:	Drachtserplein, Leeuwarden
Designer:	Jan van der Ploeg
Contractor:	Andries Planting tiling company, Lemmer
Project type:	architecture
Product:	glazed tiles, ABK tiles, approx. 10,000, 125 x 250 mm, white and monochrome colored, satin matt and high gloss

The design by the artist Jan van der Ploeg consists of tile cladding for four bicycle and pedestrian tunnels under Drachtersplein in Leeuwarden and is part of the Leeuwarden Vrij-Baan plan. Each point of entry into the town on this expansion and renewal of the road network around it will be given an artistic marker. For this assignment, Koninklijke Tichelaar developed and produced white tiles with a satin-matt finish and high-gloss monochrome coloured tiles. The various compositions are created using these tiles and the format of the tiles and the joints contributes to the rhythm of each composition.

The format, colour and composition play an important part in Jan van der Ploeg’s monumental abstract work. Symmetry, rhythm and repetition are the main elements of his design for these bicycle and pedestrian tunnels and the visual idiom of the four different compositions expresses great spatiality without using perspective. The clear and open structure of the tunnels makes it possible to view the whole image at once, but the complexity of the design is revealed when one passes through the tunnel at various speeds, either by bicycle or on foot, thus experiencing the work from different angles. The contrasts between the vivid Pantone colours, the broad vertical planes, the bands of tiles and the subtle use of matt and gloss tiles makes for constantly changing optical effects.