The Netherlands has a long history of water management, shaping our culture and landscape. As Europe faces increasing climate variability, we must adapt our approach to water management to ensure a sustainable future. To mitigate the effects of climate change, we must innovate and adapt our approach to water. Korreltje Zout is a design research focusing on the use of Oosterdok’s brackish canal water for the gardens around Mediamatic and our greenhouse instead of valuable tap water. As a city by the sea, Amsterdam’s vegetation historically was very tolerant to salt; this changed when the city got closed off from the sea. There is a lot to learn from Amsterdam’s historic gardening practices and natural ecosystem that will become invaluable when we will need to make more space for natural waters and be more sparing with drinking water.
Under the leadership of eco-scientist Jip Santen we have already re-introduced disappeared edible vegetation in our greenhouse and added a rainwater collection system to our building in collaboration with Weerproof. We have started redesigning our space to adapt to this new approach to water with Superuse and Dakdokters. In the next two four years (2025-2028), together with eco-designer Thijs de Zeeuw, urban ecologist Ton Denters, designer Ermi van Oers and artist Erik Hobijn, we will continue investigating how we can welcome the canal water back into our ecosystem, by looking at how we can get salt-loving plants back into our local environment.
This project is supported by Waterschap Amstel Gooi en Vecht.
Waternet - This project is funded by Waterschap Amstel, Gooi en Vecht
