Luctor et Emergo
An Island Without an Island
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Abstract
The Netherlands is often depicted as a battleground, with the Dutch in a constant struggle against the water that surrounds them. This project examines this tradition in the context of the Wadden Sea and the island of Schiermonnikoog, where this battle between the land and the sea is at its most extreme.
This project traces the myth of ‘making new land’ by investigating the four major themes from the recent publication ‘Sweet and Salt: The Water and The Dutch’: conflict, concord, profit and pleasure. These themes are adapted and used to analyse the Dutch waterscapes of the Wadden Sea and the island of Schiermonnikoog. The scenario method is then used to project the outcome of this analysis into a future where West Frisian island of Schiermonnikoog is left to nature and risks slowly disappears into the currents of the North Sea. The design intervention narrates a new myth: ‘guarding the water’ by using the typology of a fort. The scenario has four chapters and each of them narrates a different time period of the island’s future. Thus the project derives its name from the heraldic motto of Zeeland: ‘Luctor et Emergo' - ‘I struggle and Emerge’.