retreat for diggers, makers, and bon vivants
PARKLAND
Welcome to PARKLAND Some places you visit. Other places stay with you. Parkland is a place in the heart of the Belgian Ardennes, where we invite our guests to stay amidst nature in our handcrafted architecture. On the grounds of a former campsite, we are building, step by step, an edible landscape where our guests can enjoy the beauty of the land and where attention to people, the Park, and the Land is a matter of course. We see the simplicity of recreation. The history surrounding the centuries-old building is beautiful and worth telling, and with Parkland, it is given new life in an ever-changing and increasingly beautiful landscape along the meandering river Lesse, which we do not control, but try to understand. We believe in the power of regeneration, where people, buildings, and landscapes can catch their breath again, in the rhythm of the seasons, and in people who enjoy making things with their hands. In the first year, we will open our 1.8-hectare garden where guests can relax, build a sustainable sanitary building, stylishly furnish three guest rooms, and open our canteen. In the years that follow, Parkland will grow into a special place with accommodations inspired by the layering of the landscape; we will draw on architectural history by building upon the playful designs of Ken Isaacs and the spectacular interiors of Verner Panton; and our canteen will become a warm place to eat and drink and to organize workshops for the hungry mind, featuring art, nature, and new ideas. Not according to a rigid final plan, but just as a landscape grows: quietly, thoughtfully, and with respect for what is already there. Perhaps Parkland will soon be a place where you spend your vacation. Perhaps you will come to walk, use our workshop to work, come for a workshop, or come as a seasoned bon vivant to take it all in or simply do nothing at all. Whatever your reason for visiting us, we hope you leave with a clear head full of ideas. Welcome to PARKLAND
our inspiration
retreat
Parkland is situated on the banks of the Lesse, right next to the RAVeL, next to Houyet in the village of Hour.
The Lesse flows meandering through a rolling valley, right through pure natural beauty—the Belgian Ardennes through and through—with old trees, open grasslands, and buildings that carry their history with them.
Here, the seasons dictate the rhythm: the river rises and falls, the landscape changes with the seasons. A sanctuary for those who want to get away from obligations for a while, and be closer to the outdoors, space, and time.
Not perfectly manicured — but a place with character, with plenty of space and possibilities to create something special.
diggers
For people who love getting their hands dirty in the soil. Who sow, plant, enjoy foraging in the greenery, cook their harvest outdoors, or simply walk endlessly along paths or riverbanks.
Diggers don't necessarily need to have green fingers. Curiosity is enough.
For you, Parkland is a place to get to work, try things out, lend a hand, or simply dig through the ideas in your head and see how they grow.
makers
Parkland is a place where ideas are made. From wood or steel, with textiles, clay, or paint, and over an open fire we prepare vegetables and anything else that presents itself.
For professionals and artists, but just as well for people who enjoy organizing workshops, helping others, gaining inspiration, wanting to learn something new, collaborate, or finally try out that idea.
And those who prefer to look forward to how something tastes are, of course, just as welcome.
bon vivants
Because life should also simply be lived well.
Making time to enjoy a long meal without hesitating to open a good bottle, blissfully floating in the Lesse, simply reading a book in a hammock, or staying by the fire for far too long.
For bon vivants, loafing can also be useful. At Parkland, the day is allowed to unfold naturally.
Good food, good company, nature around you, and nothing else to worry about,
except… what are we going to eat next…?
Bert Kramer and Marie-José Hamers
telephone: 0031 (0) 647456646
0031 (0) 624266138
rue de la marbrerie 13
5563 Houyet BE
Would you like to be one of the first to stay at Parkland?
We hope to open our doors in the spring of 2027. There is still a lot to do before that happens: permits, renovating, building, planting, sowing, and probably a hundred other things we are forgetting now.
But maybe you already know: this is where I want to go later.
Then leave your details. As soon as we know when Parkland officially opens and the first spots can be booked, you will be one of the first to hear from us.
No reservation, no obligations. Just a message from you to us:
History
The history of the site where Parkland is going to land begins long before it became a campsite. In the 1930s, the Swiss physicist Auguste Piccard experimented with balloon flights to the stratosphere. His young Belgian collaborator, Max Cosyns, flew with him in 1932. Two years later, on August 18, 1934, Cosyns, together with engineer Nérée Van der Elst, set off from a meadow near Hour-Havenne once again for the stratosphere. They reached an altitude of over fifteen kilometers – an event that briefly made the small village world news.
Not long afterwards, the site came into the hands of the Action catholique de la jeunesse belge (ACJB), a Belgian Catholic youth movement. They turned it into a holiday home for young people. Old postcards from 1938 show the large holiday home on the Lesse. The building was given the beautiful name La Stratosphère – The Stratosphere, a reference to the famous balloon flight from Hour.
Later, the site became Camping La Romagne, and generations of holidaymakers came to camp here by the Lesse. After the floods of 2021, the campsite fell silent.
Now, with Parkland, a new chapter begins. At a place where people have been camping, vacationing, and heading outdoors for nearly a century.