A lookout tower as a way to understand a landscape
For Mothership, a lookout tower is never just a staircase leading to a beautiful view. It is a place from which a landscape suddenly becomes legible. A structure that tells a story about the place—its history, nature, technology or future.
Over the years, Mothership has developed a range of viewpoints, towers and landscape landmarks. Some have since become part of the landscape, while others remained on the drawing board as designs or concepts. Together, they show how we approach projects of this kind: starting with the story of the place, with close attention to experience, landscape, circularity and buildability.
Paal83
The lookout tower on Landtong Rozenburg is a good example. A discarded mooring post from the Port of Rotterdam was given a second life as a lookout tower. Three staircases spiral around the post like a mooring rope, leading to a viewing platform overlooking the port. The project combines panoramic views with circular design.
The Swallow
The tower stands at Windpark Streepland in Zevenbergschen Hoek, between the A16 motorway and Lage Zwaluwe station, overlooking one of the wind turbines. The swallow was designed as a place where visitors can literally experience the power of wind energy: those who climb the tower feel the wind at height and look out over a turbine that generates enough energy for around 5,000 households. The tower also stands beside a body of water shaped like its own cast shadow. In this landmark, technology, art and sustainability come together.
The Bever Bridge
In the De Groote Zaag nature reserve, the relationship between people, the river and nature takes centre stage. Designed by Observatorium, the De Beverbrug lookout is inspired by a beaver lodge and offers views across the Nieuwe Maas, the tidal landscape, industry and the Rotterdam skyline.
Hemp Maze
For Speel! Breda, Mothership collaborated with artist Krijn de Koning on a temporary project that brought together spatial experience, play and observation.
Winterswijk quarry lookout tower
For the Winterswijk quarry, Mothership developed a concept using a repurposed electricity pylon placed horizontally across the edge of the quarry. Visitors would walk through the open steel structure to the far end, where they would literally be suspended above the quarry. The concept brings geology, industrial materials and the experience of the landscape together. The design was not realised.
>> Read more
Lookout ship
Mothership develops lookout points that offer more than a place from which to view the landscape. They tell the story of their surroundings. The lookout ship concept connects the maritime identity of the location with a unique viewing experience. The ship stands upright on the bank of the Nieuwe Merwede.
Motel Kinderdijk
Sometimes, the idea of a lookout point becomes part of a much larger vision for the future. This was the case with Motel Kinderdijk, a concept by John Körmeling that was further developed by Mothership. Hotel pods and a viewing point on the Brug over de Noord would offer a new perspective on the river, the Drechtsteden and Kinderdijk. Although the project was never realised, it shows how a lookout point can also function as a destination and a gateway to an area.
What connects all these projects is not one fixed form. Quite the opposite. For us, a good lookout tower does not begin with the tower itself, but with the question: what can be seen, understood and experienced here that is impossible anywhere else? From ports to wind landscapes, from tidal nature to quarries, we always look for a form in which story, structure, landscape and public experience reinforce one another.