Delay at castle Het Hof in Borculo
On Wednesday, February 12, it became clear that the demolition work has been halted by enforcers of the municipality of Berkelland. This will delay the construction of our dental practice in Borculo. Twickel Foundation, owner of the property, aims to hand over estates future-proof to the next generations. Like no other, they are therefore extremely careful with buildings and land with historical value. This project has had years of preparation, during which there has been constant consultation with the municipality and the necessary steps have been carefully gone through.
Hello.smile is also closely involved in the construction and joins a weekly construction team meeting, where all stakeholders are at the table. The updates around permits, objection periods, contacts with Heritage Committee; it came up regularly in these meetings. The process also demands much more from us precisely because of the monumental character. That sometimes makes it complicated. For hello.smile, however, it has also been a conscious choice to be one of the financial supporters of this unique project. Building a brand new dental practice with six ultra-modern treatment rooms on a historic site is a wonderful opportunity. We are very busy preparing to create a unique experience there. And to make the visit to the dentist surprising and pleasant. This place lends itself perfectly to that. We look forward to working there and receiving patients.
Chicory factory transformed into our new practice
The part of the historic Hof at Borculo falls into two parts. On the one hand there is the chicory factory with its integrated monumental vaulted cellars, and on the other there is the former library with everything that was attached to it. Both parts are spatially connected, of course, but are being redeveloped individually. The chicory factory will be transformed into our new practice, while the adjacent library complex will be replaced by new housing. The environmental permit for the chicory factory has been granted and work has begun on renovating and converting this partly listed building. That development has been used to demolish the adjacent 1970s buildings in recent months. This week's enforcement applies to the clearance of these demolitions.
In order to carry out this demolition, a demolition notification was submitted on time and the necessary demolition permits were granted by the municipality of Berkelland. The specifications of the executing party were shared and all lights were green. With regard to archaeology, there was close contact with both the Heritage Committee and the municipal archaeologist, who visited the site several times. In the process, both the manager in charge and the architect involved have been on site frequently to determine where vulnerabilities lie in the work.
The archaeological value
The redevelopment site for new housing is where the moat of the Hof te Borculo was located. This moat was filled in around 1870 with debris from the castle, and in 1970 the municipality made it ready for construction with asphalt and other modern debris, among other things. Although archaeological and cultural history research has already been conducted in the recent past, the site retains archaeological value. However, for the required archaeological research by means of trial trenches, existing buildings and debris must first be removed.
Consequently, the approach was to meticulously remove the structure that the municipality put in place at the time. Like picking up the building without disturbing the ground. From that approach, it was also chosen to leave the deeper concrete foundation piles in place. The intended new building is also planned in a light construction method. In no way was the soil disturbed in the process.
Impact on our waiting list
So the development of our practice space, built so on these monumental cellars of the ancient Borculo Castle is now on hold until further notice. And this is not good news. It is another delay in the redevelopment of the site. The demolition work was originally supposed to start in May 2024, but then had to be postponed of necessity after an anonymous enforcement request on ecology. We have not been able to handle patient flow in the current building for some time. So we realize that this news is also very disappointing for all the patients on our waiting list.
Photo credits: Collin Ernst