Like Moses crossing the Red Sea. Bokrijk pond experience by Lens°ass Architecten

One of the routes of the Belgian Limburg cycling network (with 2,000 kilometers of trails), known as a pioneering and innovating province in cycle tourism, and designed by Lens°ass Architecten, is known for crossing a pond below the water level, located on both sides at eye level, generating the sensation of "riding a bicycle through the water" and creating a delicate balance between ecology and tourism.

The trail, suitable for cyclists and walkers, is more than 200 meters long and 3 meters wide. According to Bart Lens (who runs the studio Lens°Ass Architects): «The idea came about during a study trip to Norway. There, a Limburg Tourism delegation was inspired by Norwegian panoramic routes: sophisticated road travel routes.

The intervention is completed with a series of buildings on the edge of the pond complex that are designed as observation/information points to convey to visitors the educational/historical story around Wijers.

In the western area of the Bokrijk ponds, which is part of the European Natura 2000 protected areas, investments are being made to ecologically improve the landscape of the existing ponds.


Bokrijk pond route by Lens°ass Architecten. Photograph by José Juan Barba.

Context
Bokrijk is a 550-hectare park that is part of the extensive De Wijers pond landscape, a unique water-rich area with more than 1,000 ponds. The project is part of the constant actions carried out to recover the economy of Limburg, after the closure of the coal mines in 1995, forming part of a more recent action: "Strategic action plan Limburg in het Kwadraat": activated to reactivate the area after the closure of the Ford Genk car factory in 2014. A set of actions that have turned them into an important driver of the leisure economy.

History
The Bokrijk pond area owes its current appearance to the centuries-old interaction between man and nature. Fish farming began in the 13th century under the impetus of Herkentode Abbey. "Wijer" is the old name of a farm where fish were grown.

Historically, these ponds were essentially created for carp fishing. This fish was harvested by draining the ponds in October-November, allowing water to re-enter the ponds, in spring, through an ingenious system of supply and drainage pipes, locks and weirs that guarantee the supply of water and drainage of the ponds. ponds.


Bokrijk pond route by Lens°ass Architecten. Photograph by José Juan Barba.

The water level of these ponds can be regulated in a controlled manner and different levels can be set individually. On the one hand, filling the ponds with water from the Zusterkloosterbeek and, on the other, draining the water by opening a water distribution system at the back of the pond, also called monk. Once the water has passed the monk, it is diverted back to the Zusterkloosterbeek via the lower canal.

Until the second half of the last century, they were created by damming a swamp or excavating peat or sandstone. Sometimes certain ponds were taken out of use and turned into hay fields, farmland or forests.

In addition to a cultural landscape, Wijers is also a natural landscape, a true nursery for many typical animal species that depend on the aquatic environment, such as the bittern, the dog and the tree frog, species that would have become extinct without the existence of this "breeding center." water". It is this combination of nature, landscape and culture that makes the region so unique.