DERRIE

Abstract

This project researches how a future landscape of Boskoop can align human habitation with the peat landscape. Currently, peat oxidation, subsidence, CO2 emissions, and an increasingly vulnerable landscape are the result of a misalignment between habitation and the peat system. The research follows a research through design methodology, in which spatial design is used to explore how habitation can adapt to the peat conditions. The project starts with an analysis of the peat system of Boskoop, from which guiding ecological interventions are derived. The main intervention is raising the water level to ensure peat functioning, which is supported by strengthening the peat system through designing for biodiversity. These ecological principles are guided by habitation principles: maintain the horticultural identity of Boskoop and the spatial quality of Boskoop's building structure along the linten.
Together, these principles are translated into a framework, rather than a fixed master plan. The framework consists of two layers: rules and regulations applied on the scale of the plots, and structures and conditions implemented at the landscape scale. Within this framework, habitation is able to unfold and adapt to the peat landscape. The framework is spatially tested through the design of polder ‘t Rietveld. Different types of inhabitants are highlighted to show how habitation could take different shapes. Supported by a phasing strategy and storyline, the project imagines how the landscape can function over a decade.
By taking the ecological functioning of the peat landscape as the guiding condition for development, while leaving space for inhabitants to shape their own environment, habitation can align with the peat system. This results in reducing oxidation, subsidence, and emissions while also renewing the relationship between people and the peat landscape, offering a future for the landscape of Boskoop.