FLOAT HOLLAND 2100

Abstract

The Netherlands is inextricably linked to a network of water, polders, and dykes. Recent climatic and anthropogenic transitions pose several threats to destabilize this balance including the rise in sea level, extreme weather, and floods which could drastically change the landscape of South Holland as we know it by 2100. With this potentially unstable future in context, the demand for space and houses in the Netherlands rises consistently.
However, the combination of these issues presents an opportunity to restore the balance and linkages of Dutch ways with water. The future of the Maritime manufacturing industry can act as an adhesive to sustain these links by drawing on transitions around water at a global as well as local scale. Hence, the project intends to investigate the changes in the role of water systems in 2100 and how the Maritime manufacturing sector can steer it to address future spatial and climatic adversities.
In 2100, we envision the Maritime Manufacturing industry to expand its role to facilitate the adaptivity of the natural, social and technological landscape of South Holland, using water as the primary medium. We intend to introduce a radical transition by planning for diversified spaces on and for water, serving both an economic prospect as well as increasing consciousness of its role within society.
The vision addresses 3 major transitioning landscapes (wet peatlands, salt marshes, and water bodies) to develop systemic strategies and plan spaces by making optimum use of products by the Maritime industry. The vision opens up several areas of investigation around the 2100 ‘Portscape’ including the scope of circularity in the shipbuilding/ship-recycling industry, rethinking material-flows, and transitions in socio-economic structure in context to new social environments.