This is in the Netherlands, where three major European rivers form a delta. Living with water is in the Dutch DNA and has shaped who they are. However, our relationship with water is under pressure. Rising sea levels, groundwater depletion, peatland subsidence, salinization, and increasing drought mean that our current way of life in the delta will not be sustainable in the future.
Our proposal for the Dutch Pavilion in Osaka 2025 centers on the Delta. Visitors will be immersed in the story of the Delta and challenged to shape a new future in which we establish a new, symbiotic relationship with water. Instead of fighting against water, we must embrace it. Go with the flow.
Our proposal for the Dutch Pavilion in Osaka 2025 centers on the Delta. Visitors will be immersed in the story of the Delta and challenged to shape a new future in which we establish a new, symbiotic relationship with water. Instead of fighting against water, we must embrace it. Go with the flow.
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Theme
Floods and quicksand did not deter the Dutch from building their cities in the largest swamp in Europe. In this marshland, we found a way to keep the water at bay by constructing dikes and draining the land behind them using windmills and pumps.
The downside is that this has caused the land to gradually sink. As a result, half of the Netherlands now lies below sea level. The magnificent water management system of the Netherlands is reaching its limits. Climate change is causing sea and river levels to rise while the ground continues to sink in many areas. Heavy rainfall results in urban flooding, while increasingly frequent droughts affect nature and agriculture.
What does this mean for our future? Should we endlessly raise the dikes to protect our land? Or can we find new ways to coexist with water? Could the threat also be an opportunity to reshape our country? Perhaps by creating more space for amphibious nature, where our homes stand high and dry on mounds or move with the water.
What does this mean for our future? Should we endlessly raise the dikes to protect our land? Or can we find new ways to coexist with water? Could the threat also be an opportunity to reshape our country? Perhaps by creating more space for amphibious nature, where our homes stand high and dry on mounds or move with the water.
The Pavilion
The Dutch pavilion makes a strong architectural statement about the challenges the Netherlands faces: with a sloping plane that partially extends underwater, it symbolizes the Dutch situation. Throughout the entire expo, Dutch and Japanese sculptors and architects will work on envisioning the future of the 'delta.' In a landscape canvas of clay and sand, water and wind, 'rivers' will be widened, dams breached, and new cities will rise.
Visitor Experience
Visitors will witness this from a safe walkway above the landscape. Alternatively, they can put on boots and join an expedition through this landscape, helping to shape it. Visitors will exit the pavilion via the 'sea,' which connects the Netherlands to other deltas. Essentially, the Dutch pavilion is a six-month-long performance. Since visitors only experience part of it, the entire process will be filmed.
