The idea probably started as a tongue-in-cheek remark by newspaper columnist Thijs Zonneveld, but now engineers, architects, construction firms and investors are giving serious consideration to building an artificial mountain in the Netherlands, perhaps as high as 2000 meters! (Currently the highest point of the Netherlands, the Vaalserberg, is only 322.7 meters.)
In the Dutch daily paper De Pers, he joked that his fellow countrymen should build their own mountain, complete with alpine slopes, meadows and villages…
But when the column went live, Zonneveld received serious responses from experts who had already been ruminating over the concept. “It made me realise I was not the only one who’d had that idea,” Zonneveld told Reuters.
Now the idea has snowballed — And the list of companies and organizations who are showing support is growing: the Dutch Ski Association, Dutch Climbing and Mountaineering Association and Royal Dutch Cycling Union have shown their support, the architect firm Hoffers and Krüger has drawn up plans for the mountain and a work group has assembled to assess feasibility.
What is it called? For the moment, the name of the project is Die berg komt er (that mountain will come).
What will it cost? Well, the jury is still out on that one, but we are talking many billions of € here…
It’s not the first time a man-made mountain is proposed. In 2009, German architect Jakob Tigges wanted to erect a 1,000-metre-high mountain at a disused airport in Berlin. That mountain was not meant to be, but the city has given thumbs-up to a design by Dutch architect Eelco Hooftman for a 60 meters high ‘mountain’ in the park to be used by Alpine climbing enthusiasts.
These organizations are currently involved in the project:
(source: Die berg komt er web site )