Liquid Land

Teaching staff.
Supervisor: Roel van Gerwen, Marlies Boterman, Marit Janssen.

Students.
Authors: Anne Nieuwenhuijs.

Liquid Land uses the natural forces of the Western Scheldt to harvest its toxic sludge. The project includes a research and design proposal to remove the toxic sludge from the estuary. The Western Scheldt catchment area has a rich history of pollution, due to industrialisation and urbanisation, which is why toxidity is stored in the morphology of the Western Scheldt. By means of a dike that reacts to the tide, a 500-hectare basin turns into a harvesting site. The tide ensures that the toxic sludge is deposited at high tide so that it can be harvested at low tide. Purified water flows back into the estuary. The design is a landscape machine made of needles with a perforated bottom that sucks up the toxic sludge. The needle landscape adds a kind of beauty to the industrial landscape of the Westerschelde and its banks. The toxic sludge is compressed into hexagonal rocks. These rocks are harmless and can be used to develop the landscape. With these rocks a landscape can be created that offers new possibilities for ecology, water management, spatial quality and landscape

dynamics. The toxic sludge that puts so much pressure on the ecology can be used to solidify liquid land and offers the Western Scheldt a future.