Curators, Elena Oranskaya and Eva Radionova, have selected the freshest projects for their "Dialogue with Water" exposition, so a significant part of them has not yet been implemented. This, of course, spoils the effect a little: instead of unambiguously proving the success of the photos, you sometimes have to be content with plans and renders. On the other hand, only such a selection meets the curators' intention - to present the latest paradigm of Dutch landscape architects working with water: they no longer conquer the elements, but try to play by its rules.
Attempts to drain land and protect villages and fields from flooding have been undertaken in the Netherlands for a thousand years, and since then this activity has gone in the same direction - the suppression of nature. One cannot help but be amazed at the scale of achievements in this field: polders, reclaimed from the sea, occupy 1/5 of the country's area. However, despite the constantly improving technologies (although other polders have existed since the 15th century and still bear the names of the benefactors who financed their creation), devastating floods occur in Holland every few decades. And now, as natural disasters due to climate change are becoming more frequent and catastrophic around the world, Dutch architects and engineers have proposed an alternative solution to the problem. They no longer plan to drain the shallow water and straighten river beds - on the contrary, the influence of natural phenomena is taken into account even in small-scale plans: for example, the new embankment and the City Park in Nijmegen by H + N + S Landschapsarchitecten and Next Architects will partly go under water during the seasonal floods.
New projects do not destroy the ecosystem, as before, but are aimed at restoring the natural environment and the careful management of the water element. The Van Luna Park (Hosper bureau) in the polder in Herhugoward, which resembles a land-art object, includes a pond for filtering phosphates (the Netherlands is the leader in the use of such fertilizers among the EU countries, and therefore their content in water bodies often exceeds European standards). The historic Lankheit Manor in the East of Holland has incorporated a water treatment system into its new park zone, which has also made it possible to moisturize the now drying up bogs (Strootman Bureau). At the same time, the landscape, complemented by modern sculpture, does not at all resemble an industrial zone: the architects were guided by the Renaissance gardens of Italy. Among other things, the state pays the owners of the homestead for their assistance in “water management”.
A large part of the exhibition is devoted to working with water in an urban environment, where rivers and canals have a very high recreational potential - not always used. Parkcade and Westercade embankments in Rotterdam (OKRA bureau) are now being transformed into public spaces with green spaces connecting the city with the water, although until recently they were the territory of the port. Boom architects created a park with a pond and a beach in the north of Rotterdam; they are also developing linear parks along the roads and an 8 km canal linking Amsterdam to the seaside.
The most impressive project is Maasvlakte 2 (bureau H + N + S). The port of Rotterdam, now drifting further and further into the sea due to changes in transportation technologies, is planned to be expanded, while surrounding it along the perimeter with a recreational area - dunes and beaches, which will also protect the port from flooding. On the one hand, this territory will be close to natural: its final appearance will be determined by waves, wind, wild plants, and this will provide the port with "environmental friendliness". On the other hand, there will be a highway and bicycle paths, and the beach will be provided with infrastructure for 10,000 vacationers.
The exposition also includes projects outside the country, including the public space around the famous Cutty Sark sailing ship in Greenwich (OKRA bureau) and an unrealized park project on the banks of the Kama River in Perm (Hosper bureau). A separate hall is dedicated to the plan for the renovation of Lefortovo Park, created in the 1720s. by the physician-in-chief of Peter the Great by the Dutchman Nicholas Bidloo. On the basis of the research carried out by Dutch specialists, the "Cultural and Historical Atlas of Lefortovo Park" was published: Archi.ru has already written about this in detail.
The presented projects are interesting, among other things, because Dutch architects work in an essentially anthropogenic environment: 90% of the forests currently existing in the Netherlands have been planted "from scratch" over the past century - one and a half, 70% of the country's territory is occupied by agglomerations and farmland, and etc. Of course, this situation is largely typical for the whole of Western Europe, but in the Netherlands, the scale of human intervention in the surrounding space is especially great. It seems that the Dutch have long since confidently assumed the functions of the Creator and are shaping the landscape in accordance with their ideas of utility and beauty. But in this man-made environment there is only one element that cannot be tamed - water, for the sake of conquering which everything seems to have been started. And at the beginning of the XXI century, it is no less dangerous and unpredictable than a thousand years ago, despite all the progress made. Therefore, the changed scenario of interaction between man and water - and the curators of the exhibition even talk about playing (flirting?) With the elements - seems to be a very instructive evidence: a person can consider himself omnipotent, but sooner or later, nature will still put everything in its place, and in eco - the drama of our days is too early for her to assign the role of a weak-willed victim.
