Bunker 599

It took 40 days to slice through the solid concrete bunker, which was
one of 700 constructed along the New Dutch Waterline, a series of
water-based defences used between 1815 and 1940 to protect the cities of
Muiden, Utrecht, Vreeswijk and Gorinchem.

The bunker was built in 1940 to shelter up to 13 soldiers during bombing raids

www.raaaf.nl

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Bunker 599



In a radical way this intervention sheds new light on the Dutch
policy on cultural heritage. At the same, it makes people look at their
surroundings in a new way. The project lays bare two secrets of the New
Dutch Waterline (NDW), a military line of defence in use from 1815 until
1940 protecting the cities of Muiden, Utrecht, Vreeswijk and Gorinchem
by means of intentional flooding.

A seemingly indestructible
bunker with monumental status is sliced open. The design thereby opens
up the minuscule interior of one of NDW’s 700 bunkers, the insides of
which are normally cut off from view completely. In addition, a long
wooden boardwalk cuts through the extremely heavy construction. It leads
visitors to a flooded area and to the footpaths of the adjacent natural
reserve. The pier and the piles supporting it remind them that the
water surrounding them is not caused by e.g. the removal of sand but
rather is a shallow water plain characteristic of the inundations in
times of war.

The sliced up bunker forms a publicly accessible
attraction for visitors of the NDW. It is moreover visible from the A2
highway and can thus also be seen by tens of thousands of passers-by
each day. The project is part of the overall strategy of RAAAF | Atelier
de Lyon to make this unique part of Dutch history accessible and
tangible for a wide variety of visitors. Paradoxically, after the
intervention Bunker 599 became a Dutch national monument.

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