‘I’m the Secretary of Time Travel, what are you the secretary of?’ This is how Meta Knol likes to introduce herself at Place Councils. Following the Practice Place meetings at Het Nieuwe Instituut, we’re organizing three meetings in collaboration with the Ministry of the Future to explore the future of specific places in the context of bioregional building. On 18 September, we visited Architectuurcentrum Rondeel in Deventer.
Among us were the Secretaries of Fringes, Development, Not-Knowing, Temporal Optimism, and Good Vibes – people who, in their everyday lives, work for local authorities, design firms, Building Balance, or Staatsbosbeheer. Together, we traveled three generations back and three generations forward in time to explore what it means to build with what already exists. There’s a lot already happening in the region known as the Urban Triangle, which links Apeldoorn, Zutphen, and Deventer. For example, a fragment of the hempcrete façade of Voorst town hall in Twello, designed by De Twee Snoeken, can be seen in the Nature of Hope exhibition. In addition, with the support of Building Balance, farmers are growing hemp for insulation on around 160 hectares. However, we discovered that this hemp is processed in Oude Pekela (130 km away) and then transported to southern Bavaria (another 850 km away) to a factory now owned by Kingspan.
What if every building project included planting the trees needed to eventually replace the structure, as used to be the case on farms? Or if every street had an extra row of trees for urban harvesting? But then again, will the IJssel River still flow where it does today in 30 years’ time? And what about the beech forests on the north side of the Veluwe – will they still exist, or will they have dried up? Despite this workshop on future thinking, we still don’t have a clear picture of the future. However, it’s becoming clearer which actions can help create a hopeful future. We’re learning what to do (bike, walk, plant trees, don’t be afraid), what not to do (build in floodplains), and what to change (learn to appreciate what we already have).
Throughout the biennale, nearly 200 people from different design practices gathered in the Practice Place – a space for dialogue and active hope – to create a multivocal narrative for a hopeful future. In addition, we organized local Place Councils to explore bioregional building in Deventer, Veldstation Saeftinghe in Zeeuws Vlaanderen, and Arnhem. On 10 October, we will present the results of these meetings during a festive event in the auditorium of Het Nieuwe Instituut. Please register here to attend.
