POLDER PITSTOP

A44 exit 3

The tank loop of the present petrol station at exit 3 of the A44 motorway will be stretched, folded in two and replaced as an S-bend along the motorway. The flanks of the S are then elevated, as a result of which arriving cars automatically slow down and departing cars can accelerate more quickly to rejoin the motorway. A drive-in restaurant is situated at the dead spot in the first bend where motorists can tank up with food, the petrol station is in the second bend. Between the two stations a parking zone stretches diagonally in the opposite direction to the motorway traffic. The S-bend is a resistance model that is capable of creating a sheltered village immediately adjacent to the motorway. The parking zone creates conditions for the further development of the interchange. Polderpitstop is pre-eminently a car-landscape. For the motorist who enjoys racing around traffic gyratories there is a go-kart track. Out of the car into the kart. The interchange is intensified with tunnels, spirals and bridges that short-circuit the traffic termini making it possible to drive around the same interchange in never-ending circles. Just as sailing makes the Kagerplassen an attraction, the go-kart track turns the interchange into an attraction. For the local youngsters the interchange is the pivotal point between local and global and between youth and maturity. None of them will be able to leave the village via the interchange under their own steam until they have reached the age of eighteen. They race against each other towards a horizon that is constantly deflected The petrol station fulfils a crucial role in this design. It connects the internal circuit with that of the motorway network. Just as the heart pumps oxygen through the lesser circulation to the greater circulation, in the same way the petrol station couples the go-kart track to the motorway and motorists can amuse themselves before getting back into their cars. As motorists refuel below, the racing drivers have their pit stop above on the roof of the petrol station, which also functions as a tribune.