Transitional Territories Studio 2018-2019. MSc3 Exhibition (Project) Book

The Parliament of the North Sea

Aleksandra Gwardiak

Laura Lijdsman

Ana da Fonseca

Marcel van der Maas

Anna Cruijsen

Mark Slierings

Boaz Peters

Martin Kolev

Chang Liu

Michaela Mallia

Cristian Esteban R. Salcedo

Nadine Tietje

Danny Arakji

Philipp Wenzl

Francisco Monsalve Cazorla

Ranee Leung

Fiona Thompson

Ruby Sleigh

Jan Gerk de Boer

Sara Boraei

Haozhuo Li

Sarantis Georgiou

Iliyana Rumenova Miteva

Sebastian Schulte

Jimmy Lei

Siyuan Liu

Junrui Liu

Zoe Panayi

Seascapes

Ports & Automation Delta Culture Extraction

Coastal Defence Spatio-Ecological Cross-Border Affairs Decay / Decadence Foreign Socio-Ecological Integration Grey Zone

Human & Non-Human Affairs / Ecology Logistics & Transportation Extremes

Financial Intelligence Marine Ecology

Nature Economy

Heritage & the Temporal Industry & Environment Exceptions

Renewable Power / Energy Mind

Fluid Grounds

Critical Infrastructre & Systems Non-human & Human Affairs / Protein Social & Climate Justice Productive Ecologies Datascapes

Heritage & Natural Affairs Inundation

Transitional Territories Graduation Studio 2018-2019 North Sea: Landscapes of Coexistence Altered Natures and The Architecture of Extremes Booklet/ exhibition edited by Taneha Kuzniecow Bacchin Filippo LaFleur Geert van der Meulen TT Studio Studio leader Taneha Kuzniecow Bacchin Special guest professor prof.ir. Dirk Sijmons H+N+S Landscape Architects / MVI North Sea Energy Lab Mentors Architecture & Urbanism Taneha Kuzniecow Bacchin Architecture Stefano Milani Nicola Marzot Urbanism Fransje Hooimeijer Luisa Calabrese Diego Sepulveda Carmona Landscape Architecture Daniele Cannatella Building Technology Sjap Holst

Altered Natures The Architecture of Extremes

Instead of portraying yet another salvific approach againts environmental risk, the studio research module aimed at investigating the new spatial, juridical, environmental and geopolitical logic of the North Sea territory as triggered by observed trends and envisioned scenarios.

Starting by tracing and mapping ongoing and projected long-term changes, the studio collective work depicted in an Atlas the very material, spatial and geographical future state of the North Sea—an altered state—setting the new geological, economic, societal, and geopolitical base for individual projects to emerge. By so doing, the Atlas set the ground for the upcoming projective fase of the studio aiming at harnessing and harvesting potentials, shifting patterns of primary production, constructing public works and creating new economies and architectures that works with, rather than against the new state.

The role of mapping (as an act of design) has been undertaken as the main instrument in building the Atlas. By unraveling the altered—yet new state of flows, forms and hidden dynamics in marine and terrestrial grounds as well as on energy regimes, chemical states, ecological pressures, political visions, and economic rationales - a new logic of spatial interventions could be envisioned. The Atlas contains readings and projections of ongoing and future trends and acted as the main instrument for the construction of a common knowledge.

This booklet presents the first phase in the briefing of the individual projects, where each author framed this new condition in a specific (and synthetic) way. The process of framing was structured by the use of three different media: (1) a project proposition letter (letter for the Parliament of the North Sea as representational space); (2) 3 reference images; and (3) a conceptual model shaping the very essential act of the project. This final individual phase was crucial in asking and setting the most relevant questions in regards to the project of the North Sea as a common territory.

Having acknowledged the new state of the North Sea, how can a revised notion of urbanization vis a vis nature informs a new territorial project?

Climate The climate may be regarded as the biggest artefact created by human kind, as recently introduced in an exhibition called ‘Climate as Artefact’ (Kunstenaarscollectief Satellietgroep 2018). The sum of individual and collective actions, political choices, economic cycles of exploitation and changing relationships with the land, are all factors that have and are contributing in shaping the new climate. This shift in climatic patterns must be seen as the new normal, as a new condition in which human can harvest potential and adapt in unprecedented ways.

Coastal zones, where the majority of world population lives will be the most challenged by this new climatic regime. This change might better be understood in section, where altitudinal fluctuations are changing landwaterscapes at a vast horizontal scale.

As climate is a result of the complex interactions between air-land and water (the biospher) the new condition of the North Sea unfolds in three major levels: 1. Extreme wind patterns due to rising temperatures of waters; 2. Sea level rise; 3. More intense and shorter rainfall events and longer periods of drought.

Flows Two major flows among others are affecting and conditioning the new state of the North Sea. The first is related to more tangible flows: logistics and human migration. The imminent opening of the Arctic route, triggered by polar ice melting, is projected to impact the growth of harbors, the direction and investments of infrastructure in the near future. This major shift would cut down the shipping time between Asia and Europe by 1/3rd: from 29 to 18 days. Moreover, a new role will be played by Nordic countries as higherlevel players in global logistics.

Human migration is also rising and the intensity of these flows are projected to increase due to higher level mobility and attractiveness of North Sea territories as well unstable political situation and shifting climate in the global south. Other flows are related to the shifting aquatic fauna in the sea.

As new species are found in the extreme south of the North Sea, others previously present in the south are already finding a new terrain towards the north. In this regard, fishing industries must revise themselves, not only as extractive economies but rather as a regenerative one.

What is the role of design in facilitating and re-directing this transition?

Habitat In ecology, habitat is a particular type of environment, defined by certain characteristics in which specific types of organisms live. The physical factors include soil, moisture and range of temperatures. Thus, habitat is the biological condition for different forms of life to be generated and to evolve.

This is changing at a very high rate in the North Sea territory.

One major example could be found in the concentration of nutrients in the aquatic ecosystem. The sea now host high rates of dissolved inorganic phosphorus and dissolved inorganic nitrogen. The excess of these two elements act as water pollutants and can cause major problem of eutrophication. Coastal zones face increasing levels of nitrogen and phosphorus as downstream metabolic accumulation of conventional agriculture systems. Thus, the North Sea should re-think its role and symbiosis between land and water, the aquatic and the terrestrial by realigning primary production with low-carbon policies. Moreover, projects must harvest the altered state in a way that pollutants can become input for novel forms of practice.

Ground If everything comes from the ground, then by revealing the projects/ desired relationships with it we may understand the cultural values embedded in our connections to the territory. The ground gives and represents the very physical and material base from which everything is generated. In addition to this, ground conditions of coastal morphologies have been determining different coastal patterns of occupation around the North Sea. An altered condition of the ground is found in the North Sea where coastal defense, land reclamation projects, erosion, beach nourishment’s and extractive practices are redefining borders, subsurfaces and chemical aggregates. This new altered state is redefining surfaces and subsurfaces, biodiversity, plants communities, health and risks.

The extractive state of the North Sea where gravel, aggregates and sand are being depleted requires a revision of material economies in which urbanism, landscape and architecture must find, provide and underpin new relationships with the materials (grounds) with which they are constructed.

The establishment of the parliament as spatial intent.

Parliament as Technology Parliament as Metaphor The parliament is seen as a political apparatus in which individual projects both propose and face the complexity of the territory with all the various interests and complexities.

Unity, rather than separation, collaboration over disputes, synergies rather than disciplinary separation, the idea of the parliament wants to embody these notions in a metaphoric way.

What is clear so far is that the North Sea finds itself at the end (or at dawn) of the industrial state, where the externalization of the environment, in industrial processes of production, has created byproducts under the form of pollutants, inorganic particles, greenhouse gases, etc. These are now defining entities of the new geographical and physical state of the North Sea. Entering in the age of restoration and transitioning towards new systems, new relations between land and water must be unveiled, planned, imagined, designed, and engineered.

Transitional Territories Studios aims at portraying potential spatial, procedural, juridical, geopolitical, environmental, and economic synergies and conflicts between actors and projects. If the territory is a project, then the parliament is a first step in shaping the future of a ‘common’ yet separated space.

Aleksandra Gwardiak Seascapes

Dear Fellow Ambassadors, I would like to tell you a story. A story about the time of myths, legends and mystical creatures. In the past, the North Sea was considered to be the edge of the world and its people could not imagine going further than their coastal waters. The grey, cold and rough sea was seen as an evil in itself, a physical and a mental border. However, civilizations embraced these unknowns and embraced it in their culture. These were Vikings - explorers, travelers and heroes - always in search of new lands. They were the only ones brave enough to travel through the seas at a time when people feared it. Within their mythology, they used symbols for strength, mediation and hope. The Brooch placed on the front of their ships as their symbolic armory against the force of nature.

Why is this story so important? Why should we remember the class we got in the past?

Today, we consider ourselves as the masters of the sea. Greater than its power. We have developed techniques and methods to control it and fortify to protect ourselves against the power of the sea. Though this is sufficient today, it does not mean that it will be applicable in the future. Reports continue to be published on the predicted sea level rise, increase power of storms and yet these can no longer sufficiently predict what is next installed for us. We are losing control.

We need a Brooch, situated at the top of the North Sea, to once again strengthen us. I want us to create a space to rediscover, feel and honor the power of the sea. While looking to the past, we can understand its demons, just as the Vikings did. Following their lead, humans can relearn their lessons, to connect nature’s power with man’s advancing technology. We should overlay all the historical traces which has created our current world, in order to understand our tomorrow. This results in one intervention placed on land and one on the water, neither can exist without the other in order to thrive harmoniously.

The project will be located in the Shetland Islands where two sea edges meet; the North Sea and the Norwegian Sea. A transitional territory, separated at low tide but merged together at high tide. The Shetlands act as a space of connection, a new realm that blurs the sea’s geographical edges.

We can bridge these two realms, to create a meaningful environment for our future generation.

Yours sincerely, Aleksandra Gwardiak

Complementarity at the edge of the world Territorial Hybrid water temple Architectural Historical image collection by Bildagentur, 7th BC Feel and honor the power of the sea Tectonics

Ana da Fonseca Ports & Automation

Dear Members of Parliament, I am writing to you in regards to the current developments within the seaport industry. In a world of hyper mobility and political instability coupled with the looming rise in sea levels, ports have become a global trading gateway whilst the coastline on which they are located has become vulnerable. Brexit is inevitable, and although the impacts on trade are not yet quantifiable, we can assume that the U.K. must prepare for an increase in trade in some ports, whilst others become obsolete. In order to remain competitive within the dynamics of maritime trade, ports have turned to containerisation and automation, becoming increasingly capital- and land- intensive and decreasingly labour intensive. The power relation between ports and humans has changed, as settlements have been barricaded from the coast by walls of containers and fences, but become economically dependent on the port. Whilst I agree that port expansion is necessary in order to remain a global power player, The UK’s eastern coastline has become a landscape of advantages and disadvantages which are often only a security wall apart, and reliant of the will of a few global private entities. I believe that extensive research must be done on ways of physically decoupling port and coastline.

I would like to draw your attention to the port of Felixstowe in particular, the largest container port in the UK. It dominates the town’s economy and land use, taking up 3,383 ha. The port itself employs around 2,700 people and a further 9,850 workers in port-related businesses, 45% of the total workforce. With this in mind however, As the port expands and automates it will eat up most of the natural coast, and have an almost non-existent relationship with the local economy. I propose to detach the port from its shore, by creating an archipelago of floating maritime port functions that can be moved, and reconnected at different areas along the coast, connecting to each other to form bigger nodes depending on trade predictions. This allows for expansion whilst freeing the coastline for diversified use.

Although competing globally, major ports are still serving producers and consumers in widely dispersed hinterlands, requiring strong land connectivity.

The new island, although detached from the shore, must therefore have a docking station on land, making the connection between marine and land systems. The port island and its functional archipelago (in the form of an atoll for example) could serve as a natural flood defence, whilst the docking station should reintroduce the human scale to the port, used for distribution but also stimulating other maritime related economies. In this way, the expansion of the port is also preparing its hinterland for a future in which the two are completely detached.

I hope you, members of the parliament, agree on the necessity of this proposal and I look forward to your opinions.

Sincerely, Ana da Fonseca

Coastal Detachment Territorial Scale View from the Coast Architectural Scale View from the Island Architectural Scale

Anna Cruijsen Delta Culture

Dear Parliament members, dear all, I am writing today to express my concerns regarding the current way we, as humans, try to maintain the hydrological and ecological processes of the tidal flat system in the Dutch Wadden Sea area. In order to protect this territory in the future. Human interventions have shaped the Dutch land. In the past centuries, water was seen as an enemy that had to be fought against.

Engineers, often with a military background, used the phrase ‘fight against water’ to gain support. They believed huge infrastructural projects were necessary to protect the Dutch land. Therefore, as engineers attained the power to impose hydrological structures and defence measures, they gained a role of authorship over the Dutch landscape.

This top-down approach of imposing engineered solutions onto nature is however reaching its limits. Large investments on single purpose structures, are no longer accepted in a country with limited space. Architecture can critically re-purpose the traditionally limited functions in the science of engineering. It can utilize engineered structures in order to represent the coexistence of man and nature rather than their separation.

Engineered solutions is part of the Dutch culture and nature. Now, architecture is needed to make this more visible to the Dutch people and increase the level of understanding and acceptance. In this, the role of the architect complements that of the engineer. Architecture is settled between subjects, within its political scope and territorial range. It is a consensus between economy, environment, society, program and vanity. The architect is not an author but a political actor, acting with authority, given by commission or license. The distinction between an author and a political actor expediently polarizes the paramount question of the structure type and processes involved, and thus also the content and the form.

We are in a unique position to play a leading role in protecting the integrity of the Dutch territory. The coast of the Dutch Wadden Sea requires a kind of architecture that instils the presence of nature, and at the same time has the power to assist nature’s hydrological and ecological processes to regain strength. With the engineer being the author of the script, the architect and nature ‘act’ as a conjunct force. In doing so, the architect has the chance to co-direct the play by inviting nature into a design that embraces local culture, reduce the physical boundaries between people and their surroundings and allow them to feel the presence of nature.

Sincerely, Anna Cruijsen

Spatial implication for the permanent and the transient Territorial scale Based on Renaturation of the River Aire, Geneva by Superimpositions (2015) Forces of nature Landscape scale Culture on the water Architectural scale Theater on the Water by Tadao Ando (1985-9)

Boaz Peters Extraction

Dear Fellow Ambassadors, Dear Parliament members, dear all, We live in a world where we consume products, knowledge, jobs and experiences more than ever before. This social behaviour has a huge impact on the earth as we know it. We can even say that we have entered the Anthropocene, or better; the Capitalocene.

The Capitalocene was invented with the colonisation of distant territories, its resources were produced for some of the North Sea countries. This form of colonisation is the source of capitalism and capitalism is the source of resource extraction. Thus, we can state that resource extraction is the beginnings of the climate variations we are experiencing today. But where are these extraction sites? Whose lands? Whose authority? What do they extract?

How is this moved? And most importantly, what is the impact? These are the fundamental questions for everyone to think about.

Our minds have been focussed too much on our cities. We need to shift our focus towards the total scope of the planetary urbanisation. Virtually everything has become urban. Everything we do, we consume, we see comes from distant invisible places. We have become far-removed from the origins of our products and the territories of resource exploitation. These territories of extraction need to be explored and explained spatially.

Currently, Norway is the richest country in Europe in exporting raw commodities. Additionally, the opening of the Arctic sea gives it a unique trading position. The implosion of settlements in the South have caused an explosion of resource extraction in Norway over the past decades. To maintain its economic growth, Norway is redirecting its attention to mineral extraction. Since oil and gas are the main source of income, this entails a significant economic and political shift. In this project I will focus on the urban and environmental changes that lurk around the corner; the results of an increase in resource extraction and the logistics that it entails along the West Coast of Norway. I will be looking at both new and old territories shaped by oil and gas extraction. Currently, most extraction takes place in the south and north of Norway. These sites create types of extraction in the extreme conditions in Norway and therefore demand new site-specific infrastructure.

The questions posed earlier are fundamental for understanding the current global urbanisation. Presumably, we will not be able to change the system in which we operate, but if we want to, we need to address the government’s first. Since we, as industrialized West, are responsible for the concepts in place, we should take the lead. The intent is to contribute to this new paradigm and the methods in place today, going towards a transition in climate change and our behaviour in the future.

Sincerely, Boaz Peters

Territorial projection of oil Territorial Altered image of Buckminster Fuller’s ‘Dymaxion map’ by Boaz Peters Post-extractive transition in Norway Temporal Landscape Collage made by Boaz Peters, with insert of ‘After Oil’ image by El Hadi Jazairy and Rania Ghosn Reclaimed Power Infrastructural Altered painting by Peter Balke

Chang Liu Coastal Defence

Dear Fellow Ambassadors, Dear Fellow Ambassadors, It is my honour to attend the parliament and make my claim here. We all know that climate and socio-economic changes have posed many challenges to us especially in the coastal urban areas. Thus, the rethinking of our coastal intervention is urgently needed, and now is the time for a change.

The dynamics of sea and the urban are the main reason why they are so fascinating and charming. For instance; the waves rising and falling in the sea, the accumulation and erosion along the coastlines and finally, the expansion and contraction of the cities. These long-term cumulative and ongoing dynamics make coastal areas particularly important and unique. The mutual dynamics of urban and sea result in the abundant energy resources, complex ecosystems and diverse civilizations, making these areas with less than 20% of the surface on the earth own more than 45% of people and 75% of mega-cities in the world.

On the other hand, behind these dynamics there is a great deal of uncertainty, with which comes the growing human beings’ fear. As a result, people built a high wall between urban and sea in order to create the sense of security, just like the coastal defence line that already came into being as early as the late Middle Ages in Belgium. Till now, this wall is still stretching all along the 65-kilometer Belgian coastline, becoming higher and higher with the technical progress.

However, resistance does not create any sense of security, but only creates greater uncertainty. Facing the current risks, the importance of the coastal defence system is even more pronounced. It should be a transitional buffer zone instead of a sharp and hard barrier.

Studies have shown that there are already multiple weak links in the hard defence line in Belgium, so how do we fix them? Shall we build it higher and harder? What would happen if we let the sea, urban and coastal defence become a whole integrated dynamic system? Can we transform conventional engineering and adopt nature-based solutions? And how can we build together with nature in the extreme urbanized areas, where the temporal scale and spatial scale are both limited?

Under the current context, these questions are critical. Perhaps we still can’t find the answers, but the process of rethinking and exploring is already a new beginning for change.

Sincerely, Chang Liu

The dynamics of sea Territorial The transition of coastal defence Infrastructural The dynamics of urban Ground

Cristian Rodriguez Spatio-ecological Cross-border Affairs

To parliament members of the North Sea, We need to reconsider the way we have been preparing cities to face climate change. The heavy hard infrastructure that has allowed us in the past to reclaim land from the sea is no longer sufficient to maintain this status in the future.

Instead of fighting nature, we should understand better the processes that naturally take place in the ecosystems and use them in our favour to become more adaptable. The use of these Ecosystem-based Adaptation (EbA) strategies can and should be integrated with other development goals so they can occupy more space in the highly competitive urban areas.

To properly manage these ecosystems and maximize their potential to provide resources and services for us, researchers, decision makers, economic forces and society need to come together and contribute to an integral approach. The main challenge in this discussion is to acknowledge the territorial dimension of these ecosystems, for which an isolated planning system is not capable of managing alone. These natural processes do not recognize the administrative boundaries that we as society have previously defined to organize our built environment, which means that new forms of governance need to emerge according to the specificity of the context.

This will in many cases mean that different municipalities, regions and even countries will have to find ways to coordinate their development and integrate this new responsibility of co- managing their ecosystems. This issue is very apparent in the case of the Western Scheldt, a river delta that has to satisfy the needs of the Dutch and Belgian development. An increasing port activity, multiple risks associated to flood and the deterioration of very valuable ecosystems in this tidal estuary are today’s main goals that both countries need to address. Cross-border coordinating planning is a key factor to combine these goals in an optimal way and allow for more creative solutions for the development of this region. Some cross-border initiatives have already been put forward to manage the Western Scheldt as a natural system.

However, port activity still has a dominating autonomous development model, which results in waste of resources and unnecessary deterioration of the river and delta. Establishing a cross-border regional port network could change the current dredging demands of the river and even favour the economic development of the region.

The role of the parliament to set the agenda and promote further crossborder relations for a coordinated planning between the North Sea countries is valuable.

Sincerely, Cristian Rodriguez

Potential of cross-border collaboration between the ports Territorial The Western Scheldt, where ecology and economy need to coexist Ecosystem Land reclamation and potential risks Infrastructural

Danny Arakji Decay / Decadence

Dear Parliament members, The nature in the Port of Rotterdam is changing. Adjacent to the North Sea it is The Netherlands’ highest value of industrial landscape. Many changes have been implemented to ensure its survival and yet decay is still ever present.

The port activity separating from Rotterdam is not a new observation.

Once at the heart of the city, its activities and importance grew beyond its spatial capacity. Slowly detaching itself and residing closer and closer to the North Sea. Today, the port exhibits the conditions of a land-locked island.

Constructed to be seven meters above sea level, it is considered one of the safest locations in Rotterdam to build on and invest in. Compared to the surrounding landscape which lies meters below sea level and is at high risk of eradication if the dike system fails.

Presently, parts of this new port infrastructure lie abandoned, waiting for the economic demand to once again revive. The landscape activity is very dependent on the economic cycle. But a shrinkage phenomenon should no longer be perceived as a chaotic, conflicting urban wasteland environment.

Instead, we should create new possibilities for the potential reuse of logistic spaces. But how would this island react to such an intervention and what would be the final outcome? I do acknowledge many areas are composed of advanced infrastructure which is not adequate for human inhabitation, due to the toxic ground conditions it resides on. Here, I propose we should enable a future for nature to take over and reclaim this space. Cleansing it from man’s actions.

By rethinking the realities, we live in, the space should be in favour of ecological resistance against man’s machine advancements. We should move past the Age of the Anthropocene and towards a new era; a new altered nature. Introducing a revolutionary kind of hybrid infrastructure, which will allow for the evolution in the decayed abandoned infrastructure to serve our needs. I propose a project for the coming post-Anthropocene period.

The ‘Port as a Palimpsest’, embraces the old fossil fuel burning infrastructure and encourages it to decay. Preparing for a new occupation to allow for the evolution of life from the man-made intoxicated site to the new cult of nature development. The project changes and evolves with time. From a site of ruins to a site of living nature; a site that celebrates the collapse of fossil fuel resource burning machines to the crematorium and cemetery that celebrates memories. A new living typology which helps us to live with the new nature. Unlocking a new common and create a world perpetually oscillating between the current dystopia and a hopeful future.

My fellow parliament members, I now ask you to embrace decay and abandonment, to let this new era flourish.

Sincerely, Danny Arakji

Potential of cross-border collaboration between the ports Territorial The Western Scheldt, where ecology and economy need to coexist Ecosystem Land reclamation and potential risks Infrastructural

Francisco Monsalve Cazorla Foreign Socio-Ecological Integration

Dear Ecuadorian presidency: Guayaquil, the most populated city of Ecuador, is located in the largest estuary ecosystems of the pacific coast in South-America (Delgado, 2011).

Hosting the main port of the nation and contributing to the 25% of the national gross domestic product (MG, 2000). The city could be considered as one of the main engines of Ecuador´s Economy. However, since 1960´s the city has gone through a rapid process of urbanization and informal settlements. This has caused severe spatial segregation and a development model that ignores the existing biophysical characteristics of its land and water.

With increasing global environmental threats, Guayaquil faces big challenges related to flooding vulnerability that can eventually have consequences nation-wide. Inequality and extreme weather events present the biggest challenges still not answered in the city, which evidences the need for an integrated approach for dealing with the existing delta-ecosystem and aiming to solve various problems simultaneously. Is important to bear in mind that Ecuador presents a high Power-Distance index, (PWI: 78) (Hofstede & Bond, 1988) a sign of low social integration that can be clearly spotted in Guayaquil.

Dutch planning and particularly its tradition of consensus building brings a good reflection to the topic. By managing the water collectively, water boards were stablished prior to any governmental structure in the Netherlands (Needham, 2014). The cooperation and interdependency between lot owners was triggered by the physical property of water to be maintained at one surface level. In a case as Guayaquil, a society requiring social integration and a better understanding of its biophysical condition, the management of water has to be seen as an opportunity to a make this city flow into the right direction.

The city should aim to improve its development model collectively. Water systems by working as a highly linked network offer a possible framework to shift these threats into a resilient and cohesive society.

Sincerely, Francisco Monsalve

Flood Vulnerability and Social Integration Territorial Nature vs Urban Landscape / Procedural El NiĂąo 1998 Environmental

Fiona Thompson Grey Zone / The Parliament

I am reaching out to you because we need your help. We want to ensure the survival of the North Sea commons. We want future generations to enjoy its wonders it has to offer and not let our actions result in its final chapter.

We want the borders to once again unite us with our neighbouring maritime states. And to do that we need everyone involved.

This is the first campaign of its kind at the North Sea Parliament. To create a new space - a new commons – to represent the North Sea’s interests.

This campaign draws on Håkon Anderson’s notion of the grey area as “a space where the cosmopolitan commons meet national jurisdiction and sovereignty”. A space of ambiguity, placed at the heart of the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).

For the record, the EEZ proposed by the United Nations has helped resolve many sovereignty disputes, claims and counter-claims. It has made the North Sea commons more stable, better managed and generated harmony over the years. However today, the North Sea’s primary concern is no longer territorial claim but the tragedy of the commons. Since the time of industrialisation, advancements in technology have opened up new ways to engage with our environment; how we extract, exploit and utilise the space within the North Sea? This alters man’s relationship to the sea.

The grey area presents a space of huge potential, not only to change trends in exploitation, power and greed. It is in fact a medium for countries to share with one another, for the common good of the North Sea, rather than satisfying their own agendas.

I do not believe imposing more national jurisdiction rules is the solution.

This may result in a future of ‘hard’ borders, further segregating us from one another. Instead, I propose a space of neutrality. Where we negotiate the transition from individualistic preconception and self-interest to embrace the North Sea’s globality by excluding one’s national identity. The project aims to introduce a new site for the Embassy of the North Sea, currently in The Hague it will be relocated to the main intersection of the EEZ borders. The new site would provide a stronger geographical connection and understanding of the commons current condition.

This is a space for North Sea countries to meet, corporate and discuss the interventions needed for it to thrive. No country in the world can yet say they have put the needs of nature above the desires of man. Ask yourself if not me, who? If not now, when? I am inviting each member of parliament to step forward and step into the grey area.

Sincerely, Fiona Thompson

Delineation / Designation Territorial Triptych Seascape dispute Threshold Architectural

Haozhuo Li Logistics & Transportation

Dear fellow Parliament members of the North Sea, Today, I would like to address my concern of congestion and the transitional procedure in the North Sea. This is brought on by multiple activities to fulfil our needs for everyday living, circulation of our societies and connections to our environment – extending to the land humans are inhabiting.

Specifically, I would like to address a narrow area in the North Sea called the Dover Strait. Here, France and the United Kingdom are measured thirtyeight kilometres apart. The two countries are connected by the Port de Calais and the Port of Dover. Both ports act as one of the main administrative and environmental border crossing points. For many, it is a ninety-minute journey on the ferry, others it can take twenty-four hours patiently waiting in a lorry on the motorway, costing millions for the freight company. Additionally, many have waited years, camped close to the port risking their own life in the hope of a better one. Alternatively, a hundred years of industrialised activity is changing the inventory of nonhuman lifeforms in and around the ports.

The Dover Strait is a critical piece of traffic flow in the North Sea. One small change, delay or disruption can cause a negative ripple effect for different people in their daily routine. Congestion is materially a spatial-related problem, layered by tensions of consumerism, well-being and academic knowledge production.

The transitional procedure depicted by congestion requires a spatial balancing that is able to accept contingencies or changes outside the former stabilised system. In order to evolve and stabilise again. Our mindset which is influenced by ecosystem ecology, needs to evolve to see stability as “patchy” and “scale-dependent” rather than fixed. Just as our environment continues to demonstrate being a palimpsest, fluctuating with time.

Therefore, I propose the Annex Project, a poise to decongest the status quo, to build up a transition centre to contain stranded hauliers, daily passengers, and other life forms. The project will be docked, certain contingent conditions will be imposed on the “shelter”, to result in a meaningful outcome. The structure will be multifunctional a floating island with parking lots, recreation spaces, observatories. Scientific labs will measure how humans have impacted this environment. Every activity in the programme will function and be defined within a transition time frame.

I seek your support for the spatial transformation Annex Project in the Dover Strait. I look forward to your feedbacks and comments. Thank you for your attention.

Sincerely, Haozhuo Li

The Bystander Infrastructural Body Sheltering Operation Stack Achitectural News picture by the Press Association, 2015.

The Sea As the New “Land�

Territorial Helga Philipp, Untitled (D30), 1970, Galerie Hubert Winter, Wien

Iliyana R. Miteva Extremes

Dear Indonesian presidency, dear all, Bandung Basin is a region in West Java that is strongly defined by Indonesia’s natural and socio-economic conditions. The country is amongst the most disaster-prone territories worldwide due to its topographical and climatic characteristics, resulting in high exposure to a range of geophysical and hydro-meteorological hazards. The flood events are the most frequent ones and affecting the greatest number of people, especially those living in the urbanized areas. With the perspective of the global climate change, the devastating effects on these fragile ecosystems are immense.

Although there is a steady economic progress, Indonesia is facing increasing levels of poverty and deepening inequalities in the society. This, in combination with the dynamics of the rapid population growth, creates uncontrollable urban sprawl and escalation of informal settlements. The authorities in the Java Island are unable to cope and seem to neglect the rising informalities. They emerge in the most dangerous and dilapidated areas as their last resort for seeking opportunities in the city. In this context of vulnerabilities, both physical and social systems are at risk of being pushed to its extremes.

However, to overcome these extremes a paradigm change for flood resilience is necessary, where the aim is improvement of the urban realm, a unity between both social and physical aspects. In the case of Bandung region, such measures are taken with the help of flood risk management, which focuses on creating a safe and flood-proof region, by implementing structural solutions, hard mono-functional infrastructure for protecting the area. Yet, these measures to enhance safety, are lacking capabilities to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of the society; even sometimes being contra productive due to the rising informalities in the area. As a result, implementing flood resilient strategies only for the physical dimension, impacts the overall urbanisation process in the region with low consideration to the effects on the social dimension.

The region of Bandung Basin is in need of change towards a more holistic, adaptive approach for both the physical and social systems, in order to overcome the extremes. The establishment of a new logic in the processes of spatial development by combining flood resilient strategies through time, scales and sectors can build the much needed adaptive capacity to respond to the vulnerabilities of flood risk. This adaptiveness is the equilibrium between the domains of spatial planning, urban design and engineering, creating cobenefits for healthier and just urban environments.

Sincerely, Iliyana R. Miteva

Extreme Flood Territorial. Dayeuh Kolot, Bandung Riana Setiawan, 2018 Extreme Pollution Environmental Iliyana R. Miteva, 2018 Extreme Capacity Societal Novrian Arbi / Antara, 2016

Jan Gerk de Boer Human and Non-Human / Ecology

Dear Fellow Ambassadors of the North Sea, We, the humans, have a good life on this planet. Especially in the area of the North Sea we have been accustomed to incredible amounts of wealth for many centuries. But our presence and our usage come at a cost as well. Our usage of resources has an incredible impact on the ecosystems. Biodiversity has dropped in nearly all the locations that we influence. Furthermore, many species alter their way of life completely because of our influences in order to be able to live. Researchers already warn us that we are now in one of the biggest extinction events that our planet has undergone. We, the humans, are a virus on earth.

But why do we humans have so much trouble in coexisting together with all the nonhumans in the world?

This question asks us to revise the way in which we construct our human environments. Whatever we build, design or plan has an impact. Not just in our own environment, but also in the environments of the nonhumans. In order to find out what effects our constructions have on nonhumans we need to change to the perspectives of the nonhumans.

This project aims to explore the effects that our human environment has on nonhumans. With the knowledge from this exploration we will be able to alter our designs so that they will allow for a better coexistence between humans and nonhumans. Resulting in the following question: What kinds of interventions can be done in order to establish a better coexistence of nonhumans and humans?

On a regional level, it means analyzing land use: How does our current land use have an impact on nonhumans and how can it be improved to allow a higher biodiversity? Furthermore, on an urban scale it means research into the current urban fabric. How does the physical urban environment influence the ecological processes?

This project is all about relations. Relations between humans and nonhumans.

We, the humans, have already broken many relations, let’s not break more.

Sincerely, Jan Gerk de Boer

How rats see Individual (de)Composition with grid Urban Composition avec grille 2, Piet Mondriaan, 1915 Connecting Thames Regional

Jimmy Lei Financial Intelligence

On behalf of the Commune of the North Sea (Commune), I hereby propose a thorough investigative endeavour into the infamous case between Caulkins Group LLC. UK and the Commune of the North Sea. The Commune asks this Parliament to review the unanimous decision that has afforded Caulkins Group LLC. UK to subjugate members of the Commune by means of finance.

This investigation will establish that the desire of the seemingly ubiquitous forces of globalisation and advanced capitalism, mobilised by Caulkins Group LLC. UK spearheaded by Mr. Juhani Jabir, to reduce the importance of culture and identity is to better facilitate its own growth and expansion.

Through this mode of pacification, finance has consequently turned to class for its apparent objectivity in the assessment of people. The case in discussion will be studied at length to produce and provide the evidence necessary to determine that such pervasive coercion has incepted a dependency on the compulsion of the market. Thus, a pivotal moment that the proposed investigation will focus on is the turning point where the Commune eventually subverted Mr. Juhani Jabir. Though only to be pushed back by Mr. Juhani Jabir and accomplices at a later date, a series of inquiries has since unfolded which will be concluded by this closing investigation.

Various media will be utilised in the construction of proof of facts to support the case proposed. These found objects, notably letters, brochures, architectural drawings, and images, will be interpreted and translated in such a way to provide them with a communicative capacity and agency to speak to this forum. More specifically, Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory will be mobilised initially to identify and establish the field of relevant forensic evidence before notions of weaponisation and dispositif are employed to discuss each found object in detail. Concomitantly, a timeline of the spatial realisation process from Mr. Junhai Jabir’s initial vision to the Communes’ final appropriation will be constructed for these found objects to sit within and speak from. In the process of this objective, this investigation will also touch on issues of representation and agency as well as stumbling into the epistemological question of how knowledge should be generated when multiple stakeholders are played by the same person, which will be particularly useful in our future undertakings.

Please find attached, what has been identified as, Mr. Juhani Jabir’s original letter of intention of the project in discussion as well as the planning application for this project, marking the beginning of this investigation for your review and consideration.

It is my sincere hope that the parliament takes this letter and proposition into consideration. Despite the slew of inquiries that have already been carried out, it is to my believe that this final analysis will be most conclusive and valuable. I look forward to hear from you all about the exciting prospect of further pursuing the case of Caulkins Group LLC. UK v. Commune of the North Sea. Sincerely, Jimmy Lei

WIP Field of Investigation (Actor-Network) Temporal Scale Clockwise; from top left: Subversive Architecture, 2008; Assemble, 2010; @sssscavvvv, 2018; Norman Foster, 1997; Bjarke Ingels Group, 2015; Alexander Daxbรถck; 2012; Phillip Sherman, 2012; Robert Venturi, 1966; Sir John Murray and Dr. Johan Hjort, 1912; Tom Haugomat, 2016 Proposed Fictitious Capital Architectural scale Subverted Fictitious Capital Tectonic scale

Liu Junrui Marine Ecology

Ecologizing Offshore Oil Platforms The North Sea is the most intensively exploited sea on the planet. We have always considered the sea as an accustomed resource at our disposal. To trade, defend and extract, it is vital for the daily operation of countries, companies and individuals.

Human activity has already degraded the ecosystem of the sea. With urbanisation, industrialization and climate change all set to adjust. Our actions will now have a greater impact on the ecological cycle than ever before. For instance, within the fishing industry bottom trawling has now left some areas of the seabed barren and no longer productive and beneficial for others who depend on it for their livelihoods.

Offshore oil platforms have dominated the North Sea seascape since the UK Continental Shelf Act was passed in 1964. We all know the harm that can be exhibited on the natural environment; the harmful greenhouse gas emissions, oil spill pollution and disturbance of organisms. Nevertheless, an unintended consequence of the oil platform structure has enabled new organic forms to shelter, produce and flourish. Strengthening parts of the food chain previously lost from human activity.

However, in the following decades these oil platforms have been marked for decommission. Many questions have arisen as to what to do with these structures now their initial function is no longer required? One unfortunate proposal is to remove the platforms from the North Sea. This will cause immeasurable disturbance and potentially irreversible damage to the seabed conditions, habitats and levels of fauna and flora.

Instead, I recommend keeping the structures in their current location and give them a new function. Asking the question; is it possible to transform them into an ecological reserve? This may become a new and cleaner type of “power hub” for the North Sea counties. For example; converting wind farm electricity into hydrogen or a station to capture the carbon dioxide emissions passing over the North Sea. The opportunities are endless.

I would like to propose adapting an offshore oil platform into a marine park.

To act as an exemplary example for other to be later transformed. The design will strengthen the oil platform’s position as a marine habitat, and build a new human-nature relationship. Becoming a landmark for others to see how we – humans - are transitioning from extractivism to a new era.

Sincerely, Liu Junrui

The distribution of offshore platforms, natural reserves and shipping routes Territorial scale L10-A platform near the Frisian Front Architecture scale Tidalectics Julian Charrière, Iroojrilik, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary, Vienna, 2017. Photo: Jens Ziehe Under the sea

Laura Lijdsman Nature Economy

Dear Parliament members of the North Sea, Through this letter I would like to explain my project in which I am concerning the degradation of ecosystems and their services and propose a new way of thinking to preserve them for future generations.

An estimated sixty percent of the earth’s ecosystems have been degraded in the past fifty years. Considering that our whole society is based on ecosystem services and the benefits we obtain from nature, it is contradictory to think it is man who has applied the greatest amount of pressure and is the main actor in the environment degrading. Trends like population growth, urbanisation and consumerism have altered this relationship. We have subsequently developed a ‘throw-away’ culture, and are increasing our ecological footprint; putting high pressure on the natural capital. Not only will biodiversity decrease, but also other ecosystem services such as; food, clean air, recreational possibilities and coolness, which we obtain from nature, will soon become scarce. The question I propose to the parliament; what will happen when cities keep on growing, the demand keeps on increasing and at one point the landscape is depleted and cannot support the cities anymore? One solution could be the regeneration of natural ecosystems and a sustainable extraction of services. This would prevent more vulnerable groups and future generations from being the victims of the reckless behaviour we have adopted today.

The preservation of natural ecosystems is often not seen as a priority by decisionmakers. I believe, we do not yet fully comprehend the value of nature’s role and how it is intertwined into the different scales of city planning; both spatial and temporal. Ecosystems are not static but operate within a spatio-temporal dynamic. We need to incorporate this body of knowledge into the way we plan and design our ecosystem services. We must realise everything is connected, investments made in one space and time affects ecosystems and its services in other spaces and time. This means investing in the management or regeneration of a specific ecosystem is not always beneficial for the stakeholder which provides the ecosystem and therefore its services.

Seeing and working with nature as a new economy through introducing economic terms to nature’s value will help create a common language. To bridge the gap in time and space and result in more sustainable investments for preservation and regeneration of nature. For this concept to develop, a shift in ones understanding of nature becoming the ‘new economy’ has to happen, and thus will bring a new economic value to our cities. We should stop destroying nature. I ask the parliament to reconsider their own perception of nature’s role in our environment and finally see it as a positive contributor to economic growth.

Sincerely, Laura Lijdsman

Manipulation of the River Bed through Time Riverscape Historical map (Blaeu, 1649) Uncertainty of River Pathways Infrastrcutural / Ecological / Procedural Pin River – Sandy, Maya Lin, 2013 Shifting Logic resulting in an Inverting Value Economic / Urban Fabric Pin River – Sandy, Maya Lin, 2013

Marcel van der Maas Heritage & the Temporal

Dear Fellow Ambassadors, Let me direct your attention to a matter concerning us all.

On the beaches along the North Sea, remarkable objects of terrifying beauty can be found. These are the bunkers which form part of the Atlantic wall.

One of the few physical remnants of World War Two. These bunkers are in a state of decay. This is not the result of a collective conscious choice; especially in France. Due to this, there is a danger of inadvertently and irreversibly losing these crucial remnants of the war.

Let me be so bold as to offer my view on these remnants, and with it a way to consciously and purposefully move forward.

We can look at these bunkers in the following; being site-specific, often enthralled in horrific stories and a broader ideology behind their construction. These stories should not be neglected, nor do we need to dwell on it as such. However, there is value in remembering historical events, in order to understand our position in the present.

Nevertheless, today’s status of the bunkers tells the historical story up until today in the most accurate way; the product of time. Furthermore, through absence of defined use and activity, these objects have an experimental and experiential value sparkling one’s imagination. Allowing for a wide range of interpretations of these objects by a variety of people, from different backgrounds.

The bunkers can be seen as markers in time. In the end, it is the hope that an intervention places the attention on the Atlantic Wall. We should welcome Rose Tzalmona’s belief to link theoretical and poetic interpretations to the bunker’s site-specific history, whilst also leaving room for new interpretations.

The essence lies within the temporal dimension. A place with a clear understanding and experience in the passage of time, while also navigating unknown space. With this, a place of collective remembrance accessible for the different layers of society, can finally be achieved.

Sincerely, Marcel van der Maas

General situation Territorial Valentina Solano, 2017 | Moglander.com, 2012 A path through nature: an indicator of passage of time Landscape Henry Tanner, 1885 Absence of use | Experimental and experiential Architectural Teshima Art Museum, llabo.com, 2010

Mark Slierings Industry & Environment

Dear Fellow Ambassadors, As our minds have been focused on our cities as places of social, cultural and economic congestion, we’ve been alienated of the physical landscapes that support our lives. To address this I would like to start by posing a question; do we know and understand the landscapes, the soils and the subsurface of the sites and their environment which our cities leave behind?

Since oil and gas extraction practices are set to return, Norway is looking into different ways to maintain economic growth. As a result, the State puts emphasis on growth of an age-old ally, the mineral extraction business.

Currently this business is responsible for extracting around 96 million tonnes of mineral resources on a yearly basis. It’s these processes which have a profound impact on the subsurface and its surroundings, the natural processes, the condition and composition and the life it supports. Effects of these processes, often complex to measure and predict, are most often widespread ecologically, corporeally and psychologically. Its effects felt years, decades and generations later.

Norway’s substratum has enormous economic potential resulting in population growth primarily through labour immigration. As a result, the cities population percentage is expanding at one of the fastest rates in Europe. Evidently putting more pressure on mineral extraction. Even though we’re not always aware of it, extractivism is always there at the base, and has defined our lifestyle on an ever more accelerating speed over the better half of the 20th century. The true challenge of our time lies on finding a system, in which our material need is not an act on nature, but rather is developed in symbiosis with nature.

The industrial ecology approach combines circular processes between industrial activities where non-human ecosystems act as a model for industrial activities, in order to achieve high efficiency in the use and re-use of materials. Furthermore, a deeper understanding of the economic, political and environmental impacts with a focus on flows and processes of minerals related to the substratum is concurrently fundamental. The transscalar and transtemporal section becomes the most important tool to assess and evaluate the ecological, physical and environmental processes. Whilst the map is the foremost tool to assess the economical, spatial and political flows and nodes related to these processes.

The main question which needs to be answered goes as follows: how to develop and implement an industrial ecology approach that in the long term increments the environmental and economical state of mineral extraction in Norway?

Yours respectfully, Mark Slierings

Delineation of mineral resources Territorial Magdalena Jetelovรก Units of extraction Landscape Magdalena Jetelovรก, Photo by Werner J. Hannappel Section Architectural / Technical Magdalena Jetelovรก, Photo by Werner J. Hannappel

Martin Kolev Exceptions

Dear Parliament members, I am writing to express my concern regarding the potential development of Free Economic Zones (FEZs) within the North Sea’s territory. The correlation between the sea, the free-port as infrastructural driver for commercial purposes and the emergence of the so-called ‘free zone’ is apparent. This space of transition, connecting sea with land and global with local, operates strategically as a bifunctional entity. It is enclave for some and exclave for others; an arrival city and at the same time a departure terminal.

Hence, FEZs are a manifestation of the global dynamics and the power of infrastructure; neglecting distances, time and identity. Yet, conceptually and physically celebrating purpose, capital and accumulation.

Operating as a centralized node within global networks of flows, the ‘free zone’ appears to be a tool for supreme control. Moreover, nourished by its exceptional status, this spatial entity positions itself strategically as focal island within the global trade and logistic dynamics. By re-establishing the interrelation between capitalistic organ- izations and governing power, these global domains have evolved into urban organiza- tions, far beyond their primitive maritime boundaries. Regarding the historic context, ‘free zones’ have become form of power and control, which ‘hack’ the software of global infrastructure and market boundaries by normalizing the exception. In other words, they cheat. Yet, the exceptions’ application has always been very exclusive, as they provide features mostly for pre-selected capitalistic interests.

One could conclude that as free zones diverge, so does the behavioural pattern towards its inhabitants. It is de facto, a dualistic system, constraining some and liberating others. From inside-out it is an exclave, while from outside-in it is an enclave. It is the modern ‘No-Man’s Land’.

Thus, I would like to raise your attention towards the aforementioned ‘phenomenon’ and ask for a reaction to this action form of political and economic power. A human answer to this totalitarian regime. Place, which answers the infinite normalisation, while proposing an alternative to the current exceptional character. Embedded within the ‘free zone’: an abnormal spatial agent countering eternity by being ephemeral, exception of the excep- tion. A project, which like a caravanserai is shaped by various cultures, provides a shelter and marks the transition from one day to the other. A physical threshold between sea and land, which questions certainty and linearity, by preaching doubt and ambiguity: the ultimate tool for liberation.

Therefore, I would like to suggest an answer to these urgent social demands and inequities, nourished by the constant exceptions, the forma- tion of ‘Fondaco dei Cittadini Globali’.

I hope You, Mr. Chairman, and the other fellow members will take my appeal into consid- eration. I am looking forward to hearing your opinion and position.

Sincerely yours, Martin Kolev

Fondaco Internal Fondaco External Island Territorial

Michaela Mallia Renewable Energy

Dear Parliament members, The North Sea region’s energy transition has begun. The prospect of how it will happen and what it will look like though is shrouded in uncertainty. What is clear is that this is a mammoth project of unprecedented scale. The sheer quantity of renewables we need to integrate into our energy infrastructure, in order to meet the EU 2050 targets, will transform our landscapes as we know them. We can speculate that this new spatial order will heavily impact low density peri-urban and rural landscapes. My question for this parliament is how these renewables are planned and integrated to allow for well-designed, multi-functional landscapes that result in an effective spatial order.

Decentralised renewable energy systems (DRESs) are a tool for evolutionary resilience, making our infrastructures more adaptable to future changes or stresses. The use of a myriad of contextually-responsive renewables will allow the system to be managed in smaller pockets and, therefore, be more adaptable to stresses and change within ever-fluctuating contexts.

Beyond this, the practice of energy commoning can achieve much more than greenhouse gas emission mitigation; it possesses the potential to be a revolutionary mechanism, with the ability to transform humanity’s perception of energy from that of a commodity to a renewable right. It is a unique window of opportunity to democratize the energy sector through publiclyowned, decentralised renewables. In other words, energy commoning could be the key to creating a resilient relationship between socio-ecological concerns and the politico-economic sphere. This decentralisation challenges the cultural disconnect between energy production and consumption.

The creation of landscape infrastructures blurs the boundaries between settlements and their hinterlands – between ‘nature’ and ‘urban’. As Walter Benjamin said, “technology is not the mastery of nature but of the relation between nature and man”.

The socio-technical systems that would emerge from this decentralised landscape have no pre-established typology; there is no standardised model to be implemented from the infrastructural scale down to the ground scale.

It raises some important questions – how will decentralisation affect the daily rituals of communities? How will the spatial morphology of the communities and their surrounding landscapes transform over time in response to this?

How will the scale of renewables like wind turbines exist in relation to settlements? How can their DRESs be interconnected to create back-up electrical storage in times of low generation, ensuring energy security? By connecting decentralised, energy-producing communities within the electrical grid, a new spatial order will arise: one of productive landscapes. This project aims to investigate the spatial, morphological and temporal aspects through trans-scalar design. It will endeavour to explore if architecture in itself can act as the connector: a hybridisation between an electrical storage and exchange plant.

Sincerely, Michaela Mallia

Domination of Landscape Territorial Scale Quantity over Quality Landscape Scale John Robert Cozens, 1783-1788 Scale Disjuncture Ground Scale J.M.W. Turner, 1796

Nadine Tietje Mind

Dear Parliament members, dear all, Our health and our immediate environs are inextricably connected with one another. A shift in public health over the last century has manifested in the eradication of near all infectious diseases. Though it was a mere transposition to an array of ailments that, albeit non-communicable or immediately fatal, increasingly take the life out of us. Mental health is a tremendous issue in contemporary societies and cities, and yet often silenced. That shift is therefore not only linked to technological and medical advances but also the ongoing transformation of our environment. Urban is the default condition, inadvertently leaving the soil contaminated, the air polluted, the waters spoilt. Landscapes have altered, thus so have our minds. It is not by chance that every second person in the world is affected by mental health issues at least once in their life. Cityscapes are over-stimulating, they are evidentially stressful. Then again, recent research proves that plants facilitate relaxation and regeneration. Is there perhaps an innate, biologically based human affinity to other living beings? And if nature is indeed the missing link to a healthier city and inhabitants, how could a newly defined interface between humans and nature manifest itself spatially?

In contrast to the global trend, many European cities are shrinking, particularly on the fringe of the North Sea. This has left us with a remarkable inheritance of indus- trial left-overs, entangled in urban landscapes.

Abandoned, and in a sense wild, these vacancies act as ‘third landscapes’, and are by definition innate of an unknown dimension – socially, culturally and ecologically. These vacancies are both an opportunity and constraint holding spatial and aesthetic qualities and yet are often viewed negatively. For nature, those qualities lie in the present, manifesting in a realm for expansion and growth without limits – the ‘urban wilderness’. For us, this quality is perhaps yet to be uncovered. Our role is that of a gardener; cultivating instead of neglecting, healing instead of harming. By not only acknowledging the postindustrial heritage but utilising existing voids in the urban fabric to the benefit of a healthy public as well as environ- ment, we may come one step closer to a state of a ‘third paradise’ – not a natural nor an artificial one, but a balanced connection between the two. We must equip ourselves to deal with this altered state, to truly utilise the benefits of our fellow living species.

Such space is, by default, a space of transition. Thresholds – between people and plants, between the wild and the cultivated, between nature and the city – will constantly be renegotiated. It is extrovert, yet intimately welcoming – a place for people. The notion of mental health and well-being formulates the programme within the spatial frame- work of the void. Nature mediates and the ‘third landscape’ becomes a piece of collec- tive conscience of place, nature and health. We, the gardeners, must take a step back, observe and heal.

Sincerely, Nadine Tietje

Neurons Body Mindscapes Urban Subsurface Territory

Philipp Wenzl Fluid Grounds

Dear Parliament members, dear all, “How enduring, how we need durability (...) I cast a spell on the city, asking it to last.� — Czeslaw Milosz Climate is changing. Weather conditions are becoming more extreme; we are expecting fiercer storm surges, more intense seasonal precipitation patterns and, in some calcula- tions, up to three meters relative sea level rise. By now we know for sure, the feared threats are real.

Especially the south coast of the North Sea will be affected the most.

Particularly in the Netherlands, the coastal topography is shallow and the hinterland is just above or even under current sea level. In that area, we maintain the same mentality from centu- ries past, with our methods of flood protection: building dams and dykes to contain the water, establishing safe and dry land to inhabit and culture. However, current protec- tions will not be sufficient to cope with higher water levels and more frequent attacks from the water.

Rotterdam and its harbour (the biggest in Europe) is one of the lowest areas along the south coast and it is here where changes will be most apparent. The city is built in a natural river delta, which has been altered extensively in the last millennia. Yet, the hard protection against the water will not be capable of handling future threats. I therefore call for a transformation in the system: In my opinion Rotterdam needs to step back, partially, to its natural delta state to ensure future protection; a state of a temporal archipelago. This will bring the city into a dynamic equilibrium with the water and make it more adaptable to natural events.

Hence, I suggest building an item that not only displays temporality and adaptability against water, but also confidence of working with an everaltering state. The object will possess the capability of maintaining a desirable living situation, capturing the essence of the Dutch way of life. It will be an opportunity for Rotterdam to be an exemplar project for endangered delta cities around the globe, demonstrating the ease of living in a temporal waterscape. A territory of neither land nor water.

Yours sincerely, Philipp Wenzl

Blur Hiroshi Sugimoto, Ligurian Sea, Saviore 1982 Temporal State Pedro Pitarch, Topological Representation of the Atlas of Metropolitan Islands for Madrid Machine Masked section

Ranee Leung Critical Infrastructure & Systems

Dear Fellow Ambassadors, I am writing to you today to highlight the prevailing issue regarding major altered states of extreme weather events. For instance; storm surges, sea-level rise, and droughts have all resulted in many regions left with critical systems and interdependencies exposed. The impact and risk of modern disasters have caused substantial adverse socio-economic impacts, by damaging and disrupting infrastructure services that modern societies have become heavily reliant upon. Further disruptions from winter storms between the years 2013-2016 have established long-lasting disruptions and have had impacts of complete losses of essential services such as water, energy supplies, and transportation and community networks.

The frequency of these extremities is considered to be the new norm. With that in mind, critical infrastructures play a crucial role in supporting society, and if major systems were to fail by a sudden shock, the effects would be felt like a ripple effect. A single failure in the system can easily cascade across a network of critical infrastructure that would render otherwise unaffected sectors inoperable. Presently, there are a myriad of issues in the governmental system as there is little action being done to ensure service continuity and security of supply. No agency has an overall responsibility for defence against system failure. Recently, the UK government announced a six-year capital program from 2015-2021, to provide greater certainty and efficient planning in response to water defense infrastructure. However, the current model has no clear long-term objective for the level of flood resilience that the government is seeking to achieve. Although it will be impossible to prevent all types of flooding, the current planning system is too piecemeal, reactive and have been disjoined.

Current levels of adaptation are also projected to be insufficient to avoid flooding and coastal erosion risk. In addition, it is projected that with 4°C of warming and population growth, a significant number of households will encounter the effects of flooding. It is predicted 860,000 to 1.9 million homes by 2050 could be affected. We need to ensure that our systems are able to cope with future shocks and threats especially in light of increasing interdependencies of infrastructure systems.

As a response, there is an urgency to develop a spatial risk assessment framework along with dynamic adaptive pathway strategies that would assist decision-makers to identify potential vulnerabilities and to prioritise systems that require attention. The core of the project should implement a future long-term plan while accounting for deep uncertainty and to provide emergency capacities to endure disruptive changes. The reliability of infrastructural components and combinations should be able to operate no matter the hazard so that basic services such as shelter, water, evacuation and electricity are maintained. This would enable incremental planning strategies that would be flexible and adaptable which would translate into long-term resilient planning for regional growth and risk.

Sincerely, Ranee Leung

Critical Infrastructure: Pressure Points Territorial Title Re-negotiation of Space Urban Shelter: The Last One Standing Architetonic / Ground

Ruby Sleigh Non-humans & Humans / Protein Cultivation

Dear Parliament members, dear all, We are living in the Anthropocene; a time shaped by, and for, the human race.

Conceptually and physically separating ourselves from other animals, we see ourselves as superior and unique. Creating an ‘us’ and ‘them’, we draw barriers between us, shaping all contact we have with each other and preventing empathy. Instead, we treat other animals as objects and resources to be owned, extracted or aestheticized.

Now faced with widespread degradation of our environment, devastation of other animals’ and peoples’ livelihoods and severely distorted ecosystems, it is time to find new relationships and ways to live.

Nowhere is this practice of ‘othering’ more potent than in our relation to the sea. The North Sea has become a highly contested space, moving from a common resource to a territory of ownership; extracting trillions of sea animals for food each year. Yet, despite beginning to acknowledge and face the need for transition in other aspects of life, our food culture is feared to touch. It is time to accept, embrace and facilitate new forms of protein production.

This project takes our separated relationship with the sea, proposing its upcoming, unknown urbanisation as an opportunity. Challenged to find new forms of occupation, we can harness humankind’s shaping of space to propose a new form of protein production, this time based on inclusion, not exclusion.

It creates islands of heterotopic space, of habitat establishment, as a counter to the hegemonic production of space. The agency of design enables spaces of food produc- tion which works within natural rhythms and scales to challenge the growing domination of huge infrastructures, economies and extractions.

Cultivating a new food culture, the agency of design can introduce new spatial and social networks of food production which combine modern ways of thinking and creating with traditional knowledge and scales of cyclical, habitat focussed production. New inhabitation around new forms of production creates a new culture, which enables alter- native interactions and experiences and fosters altered relationships, both individual and societal.

New growing cultures offer a shift in perception, for the emancipation of fish from ‘stocks’ to ‘schools’. New island structures at sea create the opportunity for re-col- onisation by reefs; a form of occupation which harnesses the power of human culture within the wider ecosystem. The relationships and connections from sea to land create threads, bringing tides of change to our relationship with the land too. In situating ourselves differently, we can listen and learn from the sea.

Yours sincerely, Ruby Sleigh

Extracting Borders Territorial Heterotopic Islands Landscape Kombu Culture Body

Ruby Sleigh Non-humans & Humans / Protein Cultivation

Dear members of the parliament of the North Sea, The environment and society are facing a crisis, due to climate change and the uncertainty of its impacts. The pre-existing social inequalities are being exacerbated, showing the clear link between climate change and social injustices. This situation is visible in the north coastal area of France and, more specifically, in Calais and Dunkirk. These two areas are attraction points for migrants and refugees that want to cross the border to the UK – a crisis that started at the early 2000s but has increased dramatically during the conflicts in Syria, which has forced millions to become refugees.

These two cities are critical areas, they are two of the main formal connection points between the UK and France. However, there is an antithesis of stasis-landing-waiting and movement-crossing. Thus, migrants and refugees with mixed ethnicities have to live in these areas for, often for long periods of time and, at the same time, share their everyday lives. These people are not only discriminated by the government and society, but there is, also, segregation within the groups. Women, as a minority within these groups, are one of the most marginalised group, who willingly separate their selves to be protected themselves from the violence and abusing behaviour that usually men have within these environments. Unfortunately, this discrimination and marginalisation does not happen only due to different ethnicity and gender.

But there are other characteristics that put people in this position, such as age, class or income, and when all these characteristics intersect the outcome is social inequality.

The second issue is the urgency of climate change. These two cities are affected by soil and air pollution. This environmental destruction affects people’s health and especially the people who live closer to polluted areas, which is usually the aforementioned marginalised group. However, these environmental destructions are fuelling the extreme weather events impacting these areas. One is especially impacted by heavy rainfall, which leads to flooding, especially in camps that are informally constructed and lack basic infrastructure. The predicted sea level rise will increase the flooding risk and affect them directly, both physically and mentally.

Thus, it seems that there is an interconnection between social inequalities and climate change. Knowing this, it’s clear that there is a dire need to remove the gap between social and climate justice in order to provide a better life to the people living in those areas and especially women who are more vulnerable.

Sincerely, Sara Boraei

Transition of human bodies within a space Territorial Border: gateway or blockade and the other side Infrastructural Changing bodies - woman and earth Socio-political

Sarantis Georgiou Productive Ecologies

Dear Members of Parliament, On the occasion of our gathering here today, I would like us to reflect. Let us reflect for just a while on the way we have been doing things. I speak to you as an individual who has been concerned for some time now about the patterns of our productive activity. If we take a glimpse of the planet from above, we will notice the unimaginable extent of our appropriation of the terrestrial sphere. We can note enormous areas of population concentration on earth, certainly. But, most importantly, we will notice seemingly endless landscapes of agriculture, pastures, forestry, extraction, energy production and circulation grids, water and waste management and mobility infrastructures. In other words, we will notice that we have almost completely operationalized and instrumentalized our terrain.

Yet, for the most part, when we attempt to envision the coming days, months, years or centuries, we tend to focus on the dread of the inevitable risk and the insurmountable uncertainty surrounding our settlement areas. That is all understandable, of course, seeing as the majority of our populations live there. But isn’t it curious to neglect the terrestrial vastness that is supporting them?

Let us reflect then on this side of the spectrum for a moment. We manipulate, we create, we extract, and we harvest. The shape of the landform changes according to our whims and its soil is being exhausted. And then we manipulate and create and extract and harvest again in order to establish new changes and produce even further. And then again: an endless cycle of environment-making that is, at the same time, humanity-making, whereby we adjust the earth to sustain us. In turn, we then try to adjust to an earth that becomes increasingly unable to do so, albeit through a negative becoming, that is, the creation of its ability to sustain through the simultaneous creation of its inability not to do so. How do we not highlight this when we discuss and plan our protection from extreme climate variability or ecological derangement? Sure, the climate is dynamic by itself, but how can the settlement areas flourish if the overall ability of our habitat to enable that is severely hindered.

Let us envision, then, a new project, a project of synthesis. Instead of mitigation and protection I put forward production. Instead of adaptation, I put forward that we should respond proactively and creatively. In other words, what if it was the material production itself the medium to address the risk and the uncertainty? Put differently, how can our modes of operationalization and instrumentalization of the earth assist us in establishing conditions of existence in the face of a variable climate and environmental degradation? What if it was by cultivating the terrain and regenerating its composition that we could imagine the coming days, months, years or centuries? What if, ultimately, we propose a project of operational landscapes of primary production as means to cope with the inevitable change?

Sincerely, Sarantis Georgiou

Fluid Ground The variations of the continental shelf due to tidal fluctuation and sea level rise plotted against the hydrographic and topographic systems of the Greater Thames Estuary.

Stratigraphy/Lithography Sectional representations of the points across the course of the Thames where the salinity of the water exhibits change (from freshwater, to brackish, to relatively marine to completely seawater), showing the bedrock and superficial level soil composition.

Porosity/Permeabilty Representation of the porosity (as the relationship between the built and the non-built) and the permeability (as the public and open connective tissue) of the urban landscape at the areas where the water and soil characteristics of the Thames exhibit observable change.

Sebastian Schulte Data / Datascape

Dear Chairman, I am writing to express my concern over recent developments in the sector of Internet Communication Technologies. Over the last two decades we have observed an explosive growth in ICT communication technologies and the deployment of infrastructures all over the world. The North Sea is one of the primary territories that is facilitating this growth. Submarine Sea Cables in the North Sea not only collect all of our member states but also compose the critical gateway to the rest of our world. At the same time large scale development of data centres in critical hinterland locations looms large.

However, the impact of network technologies on urban life in the North Sea territory is not yet understood fully. What is the relation between landing of territorial cables and urban development? Which impact do infrastructure networks have on urban morphology? How can we integrate these infrastructures into the existing spatial frameworks? What are the requirements for equitable and sustainable development of these technologies? As we witness some concerning proceedings, such as fully privatised networks by multinationals like Microsoft and Facebook as well as scandals of security and mistrust, the importance of research in this area cannot be stressed enough.

Therefore, I ask you to support the proposed research in this field of problems. The aim of this project is to analyse the network infrastructures on the Dutch and British Coast in relation to the Urban Centres they connect.

By doing so we hope to gain insight on this layer of urban development in order to shape future decisions and indeed parlia- mentary legislation. Lastly, the project aims to establish an architectural prototype for network nodes.

On the one hand this prototype aims to provide an insight into the immediate spatial consequences of these infrastructures. On the other hand, it should deliver a pathway to establish decentralised and socially equitable networks upon the existing urban hierarchy.

I hope you, fellow members, are in support of this proposal and I am looking forward to receiving your insights and suggestions. Thank you.

Sincerely, Sebastian Schulte

Panorama Territory Panorama Infrastructure Panorama Architecture Superimpositions on Henrik Willem Mesdag: “Panorama Mesdag� (1881)

Siyuan Liu Heritage & Natural Affairs

Dear Parliament, I am writing to express my concern regarding the potential transformation of the abandoned coastal artillery fortifications in the Isle of Grain, in the south of Thames Estuary. At this point the Thames is 8km wide, with extensive stretches of mudflats it make landing boats of any size difficult.

The River Medway, one of the few navigable rivers provide landing places in this area and occupies a vital link in the East Coast defence. The fortifications protecting it, including those at Sheerness and on the Isle of Grain, were of paramount importance when constructed during WWI. Nowadays, as ruins, they are suffering from lack of effective maintenance and use. Ongoing environmental and urbanisation impacts regarding the future state of the Isle of Grain include exposure to rising flood risk and costal erosion and future urbanisation pressures in the southern Thames Estuary – e.g. Thames Airport Hub plan.

Therefore, the question is how to re-establish the value of this heritage site as a protection strategy against the disputes coming from urbanisation and large-scale infra- structure demands and the rising of environmental threats?

Here, I would like to propose an environmental architecture that unfolds as both landscape experience and rehabilitation.

The architectural proposal will start from experiencing a wetland park in the east coast of the Isle of Grain, focusing on the mudflat landscape, affected by the tidal movement. The focus on this time-sensitive area, will be a pathway. It will change the spatial relationship between the tower and its surrounding landscape.

The proposal is to build in the mudflat a multi-layered wetland by cultivating small and diverse “ecosystem islands” on it. This is to increase natural flood defence and biodi- versity of this transitional zone between sea and land.

After visiting the “transition- al ecosystem island” the designed pathway will lead visitors to the Grain tower, the climax of the tour experience. As time goes by, the tidal mudflat will be covered by the seawater and the inland tower, to transform into an offshore island. The tower is not only a viewing platform but also a hostel for visitors to stay longer in order to experience this transitional process, not only geographically but also through time.

Finally, the visitors will stop by a pathway that extends into the sea, exposed to the tidal force, with an open question in mind.

I hope You, Mr. Chairman, and the other fellow members will take my appeal in considera- tion. I am looking forward to hearing your opinion and position.

Kind regards, Siyuan Liu

Time-sensible entrance Creeksailor, 15 October, 2014 Multi-layer space Mervyn Rands, 2 August, 2018 Only Nature The Black Sea at Night, Ivan Aivazovsky, 1879 Caitlin Morton, 29 September, 2017 Dibs McCallum, 9 July, 2018

Zoe Panayi Inundation

Dear Parliament members, dear all, I am writing to alert you to the moment of sea-change which is currently affecting the nature of the Dutch hinterland, and to ask for your support and insight into an emerging field of ecological intervention.

Our coastal defences are increasingly under pressure. The Delta Programme’s is under threat from the long-term effects of the financial crisis which have caused a 60% reduction in the budget of the Delta Fund since 2012.

Further to this, agricultural consolidation and automation since the 1980s have contributed to demographic pressure in the form of the aging and depopulation of rural areas, which affects the demand, financing and operation of rural coastal defences. In parallel, increasing our awareness of the limitations of global resources, particularly global shortages of sand, has called into question the continued fortification of the coastline by inflexible hard engineering measures, which cannot be downscaled in response to demand. The consequences of these pressures have already been felt in the Southern province of Zeeland, where depolderisation begun at Saeftinghe and Hedwigepolder. I propose the resulting salt marsh as a field for experimentation into the cultural consequences of alternative approaches to coastal defence.

My project draws on the polder landscape’s system of enclosure and control to locate nodes of power in which to intervene in the search of a diversified ecosystem and economy. Through this analysis the pumping station or sluice emerges as the architectural keystone of ecological and economic control via groundwater. I propose an altered infrastructural system, beginning with the sluice, which allows for a controlled inundation, channelling salt and sand for passive extraction and use inland. A floodable and temporary architecture is required, built to control flows and then erode away as the repossession of sea continues. While it exists, it should be a crystallisation of the elements, drawing on the beauty and usefulness of flowing sand, cloudy salt and fertile silt. As the aesthetic and economic value of marine resources is reconsidered, I hope our perception of these forces of change and a future beyond the dike will change too.

I hope you will take my appeal into consideration and I look forward to developing this proposal together.

Sincerely, Zoe Panayi

Territory - Convey Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station, The Use of Dynamite in the Improvement of Heavy Clay Soils, 1915 Architecture - Deposit Joseph Mercer, Metropolitan Green Belt, 2018 Tectonic - Reform Bradley Cantrell and Emma Mendel, Modeling Reciprocity and Investigating the Line in Landscape, 2018