Het Nieuwe Water is no cookie-cutter neighborhood. Rather, it's a neighborhood of some 1,200 homes representing a "hybrid" lifestyle: on land or on the water. Our goal is to build half the homes as floating homes. Every single one of them will look like "normal" single-family homes, semi-detached homes, villas and apartments, including all the expected comforts and amenities such as gardens and parking space.

The way we make multiple use of space for living, water storage and recreation.
Het Nieuwe Water is innovative, proactively solving global problems such as a rising sea level and extreme rainfall by creating extra water storage capacity.
Living on water is a new form of housing that is garnering increasing attention worldwide. Het Nieuwe Water features a wide diversity of homes, including a floating apartment complex, floating private islands, mound homes and stilt homes.

The project is divided into sections called water chambers. A water chamber is essentially an enclosed section of the neighborhood, each with its own style, housing density and relationship to the water. This distribution creates a varied landscape and appearance, lending the nearly 2.5-kilometer long neighborhood a sense of scale. The styles vary from a collection of primarily single-family homes along private landings and water plazas with Venetian overtones to an inner harbor lined with single-family homes and apartments. Some water chambers will have floating islands for private villas, semi-detached homes and private lots.

The name Het Nieuwe Water was chosen by the project manager, Marleen van Giesen, based on a historical map that indicated that even long ago, there was a tiny stream in the area with this name.

In the former Poelpolder region of the town of ’s-Gravenzande. It fills the area between the Poelkade and Nieuwe Vaart canals and the Maesemundeweg, Poelmolenweg,  Dijckerwaal and Naaldwijkseweg roads.

The Poelpolder is the area where Het Nieuwe Water is being built, and the Poelzone is the name for a much larger geographic area, namely the region between the Staelduinsebos forest to the southeast and the Arendsduin beach access point to the northwest.

A total of approximately 1,200 homes will be built.

Spacious luxury homes, starter homes, single-family homes, semi-detached homes, (floating) apartments, mound homes and stilt homes.

Approximately 600 floating homes will be built, including an apartment complex.

Construction will complete in phases between 2011 and 2019.

Yes. Approximately 30 percent of the homes will qualify as social housing. These homes will cover a wide variety of styles and types.

Prices will vary from approximately € 130,000 to € 1 million.

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The project area has been designated a future "blue-green" corridor linking the coastal ecological zone to the forested Staelduinsebos area south of Naaldwijk. Het Nieuwe Water will thus contain a 14-hectare ecological zone along its entire length, which will serve as a high-quality ecological and recreational area.

In light of its recreational value, the water will also be accessible from public areas. Every Het Nieuwe Water resident will thus be able to optimally enjoy and use the water--and that's pretty unusual. In most new neighborhoods, waterfronts are limited to lots and homes in the higher price range.

Yes. A new traffic circle will be built on the Naaldwijkseweg road to handle the additional traffic from Het Nieuwe Water. The project area is also accessible via the Rijnsburgerweg, Poelkade and Nieuwe Vaart roads.

The options are being explored. As a result of Het Nieuwe Water's favorable location between the towns of ’s Gravenzande and Naaldwijk, there is in any case a guaranteed wealth of facilities close by.

The usual rules for waterways apply to Het Nieuwe Water as well.

Water traffic originating at Het Nieuwe Water is directly connected to the existing Westland waterways.

Het Nieuwe Water is a project of the ONW (New Westland Development Corporation).
ONW, a public-private partnership between Westland County, South-Holland Province and the Delfland Water Authority on one side and private-sector company BNG Area Development on the other, is the organization responsible for implementing the Integral Westland Development Plan (IOPW) and is helping to shape the Greenport Westland 2020 vision statement. This statement charts the future course for community, spatial and economic development in the Westland region. With the creation of four new neighborhoods (Het Nieuwe Water, Gantel de Baak, Tuinveld and Duingeest), ONW is filling a significant part of the demand for housing described in this vision statement.

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Yes. As a consequence of fluctuating sea levels and climate change, the Westland region needs extra water storage. The lowland Poelpolder is capable of storing 75,000 cubic meters in its basin area by raising the water level to the basin level. This solution will expand the surface of the basin water and basin area by approximately 27 hectares.

It will be 27 hectares.

The potential increase in basin water level of 35 centimeters will provide all the additional water storage required, in which case the water level will indeed fluctuate. The "new water" will join the water already present.

No. The flexible storage capacity for heavy rainfall and flooding prevents any damage or inconvenience to businesses and residents. The excess water will be drained off along the usual waterways, just like the rest of the basin water.

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Our reclaimed land (polder land) lies below sea level and has been used to build homes in recent years. That worked fine until we started getting more rain. We can do two things: fight the water by raising the dikes, or live with the water. This last choice is the rationale behind floating homes.

Living on water is no more expensive than living on land, and over the long term it will probably be even less expensive. There is no more land speculation, we no longer need to excavate and we no longer have to lay foundations.

Living on water is no more expensive than living on land, and over the long term it will probably be even less expensive. There is no more land speculation, we no longer need to excavate and we no longer have to lay foundations.

Our floating homes are built on platforms. We use a variety of platform sizes to optimize home stability.

No. A proven, successful, ingenious platform construction combined with the homes prevents it.

Yes. Options include patios over the water and rooftop gardens.

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They are no more bothersome than when you live near the water. Stagnant water encourages more mosquitoes than flowing water. The latter is what we have in Het Nieuwe Water.

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We are looking into several options. In particular, we are investigating whether the exhaust heat from the surrounding greenhouses can be utilized. We are also investigating the degree to which the surface water temperature can be used to warm or cool the homes.

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