- Type: Research by Design
- Design program: Redesigning Deltas
- Funded and supported by: Delft University of Technology, PBL, Deltares, WUR
- Ideation & concept: Henk Hartzema
- Core team: Aikaterina Myserli, Niels Verdonk, Pieter Scholten, Crispijn van Sas
- Status: 2021-2026
Redesigning Deltas is a six-year research and design program in which the first year is used to explore the research questions for the setting up of a 5-year international program. The Design Study (1) is the central activity in first year of the Redesigning Deltas-program that connects three parallel and iterative activities: (2) Joint Fact Finding; (3) Synthesis Line; (4) International Exchange.
During 2021-2022, the program investigated new forms of interdisciplinary design in which urban, landscape and engineering disciplines project a future founded on the natural and spatial qualities of specific ‘moments’ in the Dutch delta system: the port, the sea arms, the polder, the rivers, and the streams. To arrive at a Resilient Delta in 2100, five teams of the design study delivered a manifest of a new approach on how-to live-in harmony with the dynamics of the delta.
Studio Hartzema’s team, in collaboration with Feddes/Olthof and Witteveen en Bos, focused on the province of Zeeland and delivered the project Zeelandia.
Zeelandia wants to make the planning more accurate, holistic and idealistic. An exercise in the reversal of our planning tradition. It results in a new man-made territory based on coalitions and resilience. Both the scale of the Southwestern delta and its nature makes it a fertile ground to overcome contradictions and close new deals. We foresee the re-scaling of agriculture, an increase of energy production, residential development and recreational possibilities. The promise of a spatial symbiosis all in combination with the incremental presence of water and natural (re)development of the delta.
Find the full report here.