A small and heavily industrialized town in the Netherlands has received a renewed heart in a comprehensive but economical program. The Brink Center, which provides urban spaces and invigorates the existing fabric with new functions, co-opts the inertia of 15,000 sq m of shopping to instigate major surgery on the city plan of Hengelo. It is a small Dutch town shaped by an industrial past and post-war reconstruction near the German border, and was just a village at a crossroads until the railway came through in the nineteenth century. The slacked town center tried to focus on a market place, but by the 90’s this had been given over mostly to use as a car park.

Opportunity for revitalization came with the liberation of the site between market place and railway station due to the demolition of one of Hengelo’s largest and oldest factories. At first, the demolition made condition worse by left a gaping hole in the urban fabric, but it prompted immediate action. In 1995 a competition was held to repair and retrieve the town center, and Bolles+Wilson won it. The brief demanded that this be done mainly with commercial elements, including a large department store, shops, offices and some housing. Bolles+Wilson mixed use development on the site has contributed to its renewal.

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