Situated along the banks of the River Ijssel, Hof te Dieren is perhaps the most special of a number of landscape gardens in the region of Rheden. Established originally as a hunting lodge for William II of Orange, the landscape of Hof te Dieren uniquely extends beyond its own grounds and into the Veluwezoom National Park beyond.
The grounds at Hof te Dieren are in the English Picturesque Landscape Garden style. Drawn by E.C.A. Petzold in 1877, the garden represents an idealised view of nature and replaced an earlier more formal Jardin à la Française.
The unique character of Hof te Dieren comes from the beautiful landscape. The pleasure of an English Landscape Garden comes from the inviting vistas that are revealed as one moves through the landscape. Our proposal takes the intentions of the garden’s original design by Petzold as its starting point. To make sense of this place our scheme looks to make again the original composition of a house as the centrepiece in a landscape of views.
The new house is a prominent figure within the landscape. It could be seen from the main road as a kind of landmark that announces the presence of this wonderful garden to all who pass by.
The figure and scale of the main house, garden pavilion, forecourt and access road are related to the forms and paths that exist in the landscape today, but also to the different structures that have existed there before.
Access is by means of a new road into the site from the north. To one side along the avenue there is a discreet ramp that will take residents of the main house down to an underground car park. Visitors will arrive at a generous forecourt in front of the house where they could park their car, while those living in the garden pavilion would continue on a little further to a sheltered car port nestled amongst the trees, not far from their own front doors.
