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Bunker Servaas Bulwark Utrecht (2001-2002)
Client
Edwin Oostmeijer Property Development
The client wants to build a housing project on a former rampart at the edge of Zocher Park, Utrecht, where a German bunker has been camouflaged as a dwelling since 1944. Demolition of the bunker would make space for a new-build project designed by the government architect of Belgium, Bob van Reeth. Oostmeijer asked the SAG to analyze the course taken by decision-making on this matter over the past ten years, intrinsic arguments supporting demolition or preservation, and the architecture-historical value of the bunker to both nation and city.
This analysis was to be set down in a report based on a study of public opinion as to whether this structure merited the status of monument and whether a German bunker partially built (but never completed) on the Servaas Bulwark in Utrecht during World War II should be demolished or preserved.
Having heard the Council of Culture’s positive reaction to the Military Heritage Foundation’s request for National Monument status for the Servaas Bulwark bunker, Edwin Oostmeijer Property Development asked the SAG for an opinion on the Council of Culture’s recommendation. The SAG called on specialist Erik de Reijer (Functional Bunker Management Foundation) for help and carried out its own archival research (at the NIOD and Utrecht Municipal Archives) in order to put the bunker in a broader context and to make comparisons on a national scale.
Coordinator: Koos Bosma
Researcher: Nicole van Hamond
Publication
Nicole van Hamond, De Duitse bunker aan het Servaasbolwerk te Utrecht, Utrecht 2001
Explanatory notes, Koos Bosma, Feit en fictie rond Bunker Servaasbolwerk, 5 november 2001
Koos Bosma, Servaasbolwerk. Een militair bolwerk heeft hier nooit gelegen. Een vergelijkend onderzoek naar de functie, vormgeving en betekenis van de bunker aan het servaasbolwerk in Utrecht, april 2002. Appendix: Erik de Reijer (Functional Bunker Management Foundation), Meten is weten. Een feitelijke beschrijving van de bunker aan het Servaasbolwerk
Bob van Reeth, housing project on the site of the German bunker on the Servaas Bulwark, Utrecht
Existing German bunker with camouflage, Servaas Bulwark, Utrecht, present condition
Koos Bosma: The square surface, the thickness of the walls, the number of levels and the (sub)function of the point that connects the bunker to the Servaas Bulwark are neither nationally nor internationally exceptional. . . . The bunker has had no demonstrable military significance for the defence of Utrecht and was certainly no part of the Festung Utrecht. One can rightfully speak of a Fremdkörper.
Erik de Reijer: The body is German; all mechanical systems date back to the Cold War. These components are quite common. In my opinion, the bunker is not an example of normal German bunker construction. There are few or no remarkable elements. A number of renovations have erased all German characteristics.