Listening walk – An exploration of The Binckhorst with the ears
As part of the two-year Dutch-Swedish research project Sound UP, Renate Zentschnig and Justin Bennett organised a listening walk for visitors of the Binckmarkt XL at the Caballero Factory in The Hague on 7 November. The Binckmarkt XL is organised by the Municipality of The Hague to allow residents and interested parties to participate in discussions about what the Binckhorst should look like in 2050. The listening walk had a slightly different approach: what should the Binckhorst sound like in 2025?
During the walk, participants were invited to listen attentively to the soundscape of the Binckhorst, an area where people live, work and build in close proximity to each other, and think about questions such as: What do you want the Binckhorst to sound like in the future? And: Which sounds should not be lost?
A key theme was the balance between activity and quiet. Some participants advocated ‘silence’ and sounds of nature, while others saw bustle as essential for liveliness. In conversations during and after the walk, this was intensively exchanged.
Special insights emerged during the walk. Participants discovered how decisive sound is for the experience of an area: “You hear how an area ticks. Which sounds are dominant, which ones are missing and which ones you miss.” Striking to walkers was the dominance of traffic and construction sounds and the lack of human voices and nature sounds. This points to an important challenge for urban planners: how to ensure that the sounds of bustle, quiet and nature are balanced in the Binckhorst of the future?
This listening walk and the participatory research in the Binckhorst in general will lead to concrete recommendations to urban planners and other professionals involved in the layout on how to design the Binckhorst so that it not only looks good, but also sounds good.
How will De Binckhorst sound in the next 20 years?
Based on their findings and the response during the listening walk, Justin and Renate reflect on opportunities and threats regarding the sound of De Binckhorst:
1. Building noise. As the area will still be unfinished in 20 years, construction noise will remain a constant factor for a long time, but will shift from place to place. Because the population will increase, an increasing number of people are expected to be exposed to construction noise in the Binckhorst. An important question to answer, therefore, is whether it is possible to spatially and temporally plan future construction activities in such a way that people living in the Binkhorst are less affected by construction noise than is currently the case.
2. Functional blending. Regarding the mixing of living/working functions, it seems good to us to develop ‘buffer zones’ – e.g. green spaces – to separate living/working. Differentiation is a recurring theme.
3. Physical layout. From a technical point of view – Careful planning of the acoustics of squares and careful placement of air conditioning and heat pumps (not on the quiet side!) can make an important contribution to a pleasant living environment. Indeed, these aspects can make or break the outdoor living environment.
4. Experimentation zone. The area near Orionstraat/Wegastraat/ Siriusstraat is one of the quiet parts of the Binkhorst. Here there are small businesses and housing. This area is ideally suited to experiment how living and working can coexist in a pleasant way. The experiment will then have to focus on the design of the public space. The idea is to design the space in such a way that it functions optimally as a residence and meeting place where both residents and people from the companies can meet.
5. Phasing and noise planning. Residents appreciate specific sounds: Human voices, natural sounds such as birdsong. These sounds can and should already be facilitated in the Binckhorst. Making these sounds more audible improves the residential climate. This requires specific spatial interventions. It is important to plan/implement these interventions now, not only for 20 years from now when the area is ‘finished’.
A summary of the walk can be found on the website of the Municipality of The Hague.
