Amsterdam-based RAAAF and Atelier de Lyon have completed an imposing Dutch monument paying tribute to the country’s centuries-old flood defense systems. “Deltawerk //” appropriates the enormous decaying test models in the Waterloopbos national monument, a former Dutch Hydrodynamics laboratory.
Deltawerk //, which opened September 27th, is envisioned as a “tribute to the majesty and seemingly indestructible power of the Dutch delta works,” shedding new light on the “practice of preserving cultural heritage.”
The flood defense measures themselves—a network of dams, sluices, locks, dykes, levees and storm surge barriers in South Holland—have collectively been described as one of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.
One structure in Waterloopbos, a collection of test models each no longer serving their original function, is the Delta Flume – a structure used to artificially form enormous "full-scale" waves to test the strength of the Delta Works projects.
The project has been created by the excavation of the sand plateau around the Delta flume, creating a 22-foot-high, 850-foot-long (7-meter-high, 250-meter-long) “delta work” surrounded by water. Imposing concrete slabs turned 90 degrees around their axis, and cut from 80-centimeter-thick walls, create spaces of intense light, shadows, reflection, and views through the complex.
As time passes, it is envisioned that the slabs will be “colonized by a nature,” while the atmosphere changes depending on time of day, season, or year.
News via: RAAAF
Client: Natuurmonumenten & Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency
Artwork: RAAAF | Atelier de Lyon
Team: Erick de Lyon, Ronald & Erik Rietveld, David HabetsLocation: Waterloopbos, oorsterweg 36, 8316 PT Marknesse, Noordoostpolder
