gold-colored text and fencing come together

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'Taal van de weg' - Nieuwe Kadijk
Project
'Taal van de weg' - Nieuwe Kadijk
Location
Breda
Client
City of Breda
Year design
2007
In cooperation with
één op één graphic design & communication
Execution
Koninklijke Wegenbouw Stevin, Van Hattum en Blankevoort
Year realisation
2009

Language, signs and pictogram symbols are inextricably connected with the readability of streets or roads. ‘Street talk’ is an artistic expression in the underground passage of the Nieuwe Kadijk-Oosterhoutseweg in which words provide a look into the past, into the history that has disappeared from the place.

Passing motorists can read two words on the concrete walls of the underpass: BOOMSTAM and STAMBOOM (tree trunk and family tree). Together, this play on words reminds one of the Napoleonic era in which the Oosterhoutseweg was constructed. The word ‘boomstam’ (tree trunk) reminds one about the rigid rhythm of trees that were planted along the roads at that time, to deliver provisions and provide shading for the benefit of the soldiers. In the course of time this rhythm partially disappeared and was snipped even further with the arrival of the underpass. The word ‘stamboom’ (family tree) implies the standardised registration of births, marriages, divorces and deaths, which was introduced by Napoleon: the Civil Registry. The two words will be 3 metres tall, recessed in the concrete tunnel walls and will be provided with a gold-coloured metal coating.

New balustrades will be placed along Oosterhoutseweg. They will be positioned along the lines of the Napoleonic tree rhythm. Slender steel rods will be placed between the heavy wooden columns in a lively rhythm, a glancing reference to the reedlands of the surroundings. In the evenings the balustrade is modestly illuminated.