Attraction Profile
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Opa and Oma (grandfather and grandma) Van der Plas are the hosts at the Huis in de Heuvel
HUIS IN DE HEUVEL The house where anything goes! Climb inside the cupboards!
Imagine a house where you could jump on the bed, slide down the stairs and crawl through secret tunnels. Wouldn’t that be every child’s dream come true? At a small family park in the Netherlands it’s just become a reality. Owen Ralph reports from Rotterdam
Slide down the stairs!
edge of a lake in the Rotterdam suburb of Hillergersberg. For years it has provided low cost recreation for local families and schools, an escape from the hustle and bustle of this famous port city. Open seven days a week, it attracts visitors from a roughly 30 to 40km radius, including a loyal band of season pass holders, who visit an average of six times year. Plaswijckpark’s name comes from a slang spelling of the Dutch words for “lake and “place” and today the 15-hectare facility, a third of which is made up of water, is divided into three zones: Dierenwijck (Animal Place), Wandelwijck (Canal Place) and Speelwijck (Play Place). It is in the latter are that the Huis in de Heuvel (House in the Hill) is located – and it represents one the most ambitious undertakings ever for this not-for- profit enterprise.
O Teeter-totter on a toothbrush! 26
As its heart is a play facility designed and themed by Jora Vision. The Plaswijck Foundation has spent over €4 million ($5.2m) on the complete project, much of it on an unconventional leaf-shaped building that also includes restaurant facilities and an exhibition space. The glass-coated structure is supposed to blend in with
riginally known as Theetuin Hillergersberg, Plaswijckpark was founded in 1923 by the entrepreneur CNA Loos and is located on the
the natural surroundings, and a giant hill has been constructed from earth outside, which children will eventually be able to play on. Grass will be also be grown on the roof. Come back in a few years and you won’t recognise it; you might not even be able to find it! Jora’s Vision’s designs for the play area inside, which accounts for around a quarter of the budget, is a bit more in-your-face. The concept behind the Huis in de Heuvel is that kids are entering their grandparent’s house where, unlike in their own home, they can do exactly what they want.
Explore like never before “What my own children told me,” says Plaswijck Foundation chairman Ot Ciolina, “is that they like to have fun exploring things. Here they can explore like never before by climbing into a cuckoo clock, getting lost inside the cupboards and drawers, or even going right up to the top of the house and peeping out of the chimney!”
In the centre of the main room is a big birdcage, with ropeways that link it to many of the other play features inside the house. A giant plant is another effective piece of theming. Oversized sweets, food cartons and cushions litter the floor.
It would of course be very cheeky of any visiting children to bounce on their grandma and grandfather’s bed, but two trampolines allow them to do just that. A highlight of the attraction is expected to be the bathroom area, where kids climb inside one of two bath tubs and fire foam balls at each other via canons themed as shampoo bottles. Other features include a
APRIL 2013
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