The water in the harbor sloshes against the quays. The masts sway back and forth, inside the lights are on. We are in Zeeland, in the Dutch southwestern delta. When the wind blows in the Netherlands, the elements rage here, it is both the fate and the charm of the delta. Where other regions are at odds, Zeeland has become grander in recent decades. Mighty dikes, majestic locks and bridges, towering windmills are proud markers an invincible landscape where the water is omnipresent.
Beneath this muscular surface, the vitality of Zeeland is under pressure. The population is shrinking and getting older, the amenities are declining. At the same time, the province is flooded with tourists and the infrastructure of roads and energy is advancing. The balance seems to be lost and more and more often the inhabitants of Zeeland are a guests in their own province.
Symbiosis landscapes make connections
Zeelandia proposes symbiosis landscapes as an answer to the dormant process of impoverishment. They are environments in which combinations of functions and functionalities are reinvented, with both physical and social processes being renewable. At the heart of this landscape is the water. Coastal defence, improvement of the quality of inland waterways and freshwater supplies are seen as elementary components of the restoration of the regional vitality. No hard boundaries and contradictions here, but dynamic transitions with symbiotic properties. Along the large bodies of water, broader zones are defined in which natural gradients contribute to biodiversity and environmental quality. A cosmic order in which natural processes of sedimentation are given time, where tides can be experienced and in which there is room for habitation and recreation.
Urban planning in the landscape
Stad aan het Sloe is the provisional pinnacle of the proposed symbiosis landscapes. The Sloe that once separated Walcheren from Zuid-Beveland is being excavated again, old creeks are being connected to it and a new water-rich landscape is being created, connected to the Veersemeer. The wide banks draw the contours of four neighbourhoods that will be connected by a monumental Voorstraat (Main Street), rising from the station to the central island on the Schengen.
The various residential environments together offer space for about 25,000 inhabitants. They work at home, look for space for urban agriculture and have a sailboat in their backyard. There is room for everyone and space for tourism and recreation. The Lange Haven with its many yachts forms the natural middle. The inhabitants love the outdoors and are in Antwerp or the Randstad within an hour. The omnipresent landscape colours the experience of the seasons and enriches life in this new community.
The city of the future is based on nature
Stad aan het Sloe breaks with the tradition of separating functionalities from each other. This urban symbiosis landscape restores the eternal bond between man and nature. Between habitation and tourism, between working and living. Between land and water. Whereas earlier in Zeeland these apparent contradictions set the tone and produced monomaniacal areas for habitation, tourism, shopping and business, the vital future of Stad aan het Sloe lies in the union of these extremes.
The connection with nature and with natural processes form the basis. This includes circular construction and the application of renewable and bio-based materials in Stad aan het Sloe. The location on the Vlissingen-Amsterdam railway also fits in with this. The connections within this future-proof water city are designed for cyclists and pedestrians. Located on one of the higher parts of Zeeland, here is a home port for a new generation of Zeelanders.
The proposal for Stad aan het Sloe is part of Zeelandia – a provocative spatial laboratory for the Southwest delta. A collaboration between Studio Hartzema and LOF Landscape Architects and Witteveen+Bos. With the submission for the Eo Wijers competition ‘Where we want to live’, the foundation has been laid for Stad aan het Sloe as a symbiosis landscape.
