SPRAWLING URBAN PARK

Designed by KCAP as landscape architect, the project features a nature-inclusive, climate-adaptive environment that integrates over 400 new trees, diverse programming for all ages and integrated housing developments. The Urban Ox Park, featuring a skatepark, pumptrack and calisthenics park, now serves as the beating heart of the renewed Sibeliuspark.

Previously oversized and underutilised due to limited programming and a context dominated by single-family housing with private gardens, Sibeliuspark lacked identity and, at times, safety. KCAP's design strategy made the park more compact, vibrant and attractive through the introduction of integrated housing, diverse park programs and varied topography and planting. Several housing projects in and around the park create a vibrant community, while a variety of new programs reactivate the space for people of all ages and abilities—from local neighbors to visitors from across the city and region.

Inspired by the local rural landscape, the park's design is organised through a solid, future-proof spatial framework. More than 400 new trees join existing mature specimens to create "park chambers" that connect with the small-scale mosaic landscape typical of the area. This framework ensures unity while enhancing readability and orientation throughout the park.

A distinctive 3.5-meter-wide "park ribbon" loops through the park, creating a signature identity while connecting it with surrounding areas including the Talentencampus and TOP Oss stadium. The generous park route accommodates walking, cycling and skating, while a network of semi-paved paths connects surrounding neighborhoods and enables various routes through the park.

Activities concentrate along the loop, creating opportunities for chance encounters and enhancing visibility and safety. At strategic locations, the ribbon widens into pockets: small gathering squares that provide access to the park's various program components. Street furniture is placed in these pockets to keep the rest of the park free of obstacles.

The integration of housing within the park requires careful consideration of the transition between private and public space. Homes are slightly elevated from the park, with slopes and wadis creating natural buffers. A generously oversized sidewalk in front of the new homes functions as communal space that activates the park edge and promotes social interaction between residents and park visitors, blurring the boundary between home and park.

The park landscape has evolved from simple lawn with trees to a rich and diverse palette of habitats. The continuous network of trees allows birds and bats to forage and nest, while a bee landscape with flowering meadows provides food and nesting opportunities for bees, butterflies and amphibians. Ecological banks and wadis provide habitat for various aquatic plants, and the western edge transforms into a woodland border where squirrels and hedgehogs can hide and nest. With this diversification, the park now serves as a key component of the city's ecological structure.

Rainwater from paved surfaces and houses drains visibly via open gutters to wadis in the park. Beyond their vital stormwater management function, these wadis boost biodiversity and provide cooling during summer heatwaves. By introducing topography using local soil in a closed soil balance, the park becomes more engaging: hills, wadis, and slopes create diverse vistas, viewpoints, and countless opportunities for natural play.

On the west side, where private gardens or parking lots face the park, buffers are created through a woodland zone bordered by locally reclaimed tree trunks. The east side, facing a main road, opens up to become a bike- and pedestrian-friendly tree-lined boulevard, promoting views and social control.

The park program, developed in consultation with Oss residents and organized around themes of sports, nature, and food, makes Sibeliuspark a unique destination. The key spaces include:

• Urban Ox Park | The beating heart of the park features a challenging 1,200 m² skatepark with various obstacles, a pumptrack for bikes, scooters or skates and a calisthenics zone for bodyweight strength training. Strategically placed around a central pocket with a large wooden tribune and smoothly integrated between existing mature trees, the inclusive design welcomes everyone from beginners to experienced athletes. Urban Ox Park hosts daily activities as well as events like the Urban Ox Fest, a free festival with music, sports competitions, and socializing.
• Park Square | A flexible event space accommodating markets, concerts, sports tournament and parties.
• The Hill | A 4-meter-high hill created from on-site excavated soil offers sunbathing in summer and sledding in winter. A tribune on the hill provides views over the square and park, crowned by an impressive 17-meter-long, 5-meter-high steel industrial swing inspired by a well-known local building, celebrating Oss's rich industrial heritage.
• Heath Garden Playground | An irregularly shaped seating edge defines this communal zone between new homes, showcasing local heathland with play hills, sand, flowering heather and waving grasses.
• Community Gardens | Vegetable gardens complete with greenhouse and water pump serve local residents, alongside a playground for young children and a central "open field" for kite flying, picnicking and festivals.

SIBELIUSPARK
LOCATION Oss, Netherlands
ARCHITECT KCAP
PHOTOGRAPHY Aiste Rakauskaite