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Tidal water1/1/2024 Located right at the edge of the river in a former harbor, the park-or parts of it-was designed to flood with the tide, about twice a day. Not far from the sponge garden, De Urbanisten is working on a tidal park. The concept can be scaled and replicated across a wild variety of urban scenarios, from residential gardens to landscaped strips alongside highways. Instead, it can collect and absorb stormwater without anyone having to water the plants. For the past three years, the architects have been using the garden as a testing ground, trialing various plants and soil compositions like clay, rubble, and peat.Īgate Kalnpure, an architect and landscape designer at the firm who took me on a tour of the sponge garden, says the garden isn’t connected to the city’s sewage system. Sponge Garden In 2019, De Urbanisten created a small sponge garden designed to soak up rainwater quickly, hold it temporarily, and release it back into the ground slowly. “We still might need a little bit of these pipes and pumps, but we have to start investing in a future system that is a nature-based system with soil and blue-green infrastructures.” “The drainage city is a 19th-century concept that was elaborated in the 20th century, but we’re not going to bring that into the 21st century,” says Dirk van Peijpe, a founder of De Urbanisten. But as climate change makes flash floods and extreme rainfall more likely across the globe, it offers a replicable model that extends far beyond the limits of the city. The studio’s work is particularly crucial in Rotterdam, much of which lies below sea level. They’ve built another water square in the Dutch town of Tiel, a sponge garden outside their office in Rotterdam, and now they’re working on two major projects elsewhere in Rotterdam: a tidal park that was designed to flood, and a climate-adaptive version of Manhattan’s High Line, complete with a water-purifying landscape.Īt the core of De Urbanisten’s practice is the belief that landscape architecture can help mitigate climate change by moving away from obsolescent drainage systems and toward more natural approaches like rain gardens and permeable surfaces. Since then, the architects have researched water management issues in Mexico City Antwerp, Belgium and even New York City in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. It was completed in 2013, and it marked a shift in the firm’s mission. The Water Square (Waterplein in Dutch) was designed by local urbanism and landscape architecture firm De Urbanisten. But when it rains, the squares can fill up and hold up to 450,000 gallons of water. On a regular day like today, these squares can be used as basketball and volleyball courts, skateboarding rinks, amphitheaters, or even ceremonies for the nearby church.
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