Project by Enrike van Wingerden (PI), with Willie Vogel, Bram van Prooijen, Saskia de Wit, Siemco Louwerse, Isabelle Gerritsma, Maarten Meijer, Eileen Stornebrink, Alien Kok, Philip Drontman
Erasmus University Rotterdam, TU Delft, Watersnoodmuseum, Deltares, Hanzehogeschool Groningen, Studio Inscape, Zuidwestelijke Delta
Funded through the Resilient Delta’s Kick-Starter Grant, this project explores how climate adaptation can be experienced through landscape, memory, and movement. Set on the flood-prone island of Goeree-Overflakkee – a place shaped by the catastrophic North Sea flood of 1953 and the ongoing pressures of sea level rise – the Open-Air Climatorium the Dutch Delta creates an embodied way for communities to engage with climate change. By guiding participants along a walking trail with interpretative points and landscape performances, the project transforms environmental knowledge into lived experience.
The Climatorium trail connects environmental history, design, and sensory engagement, making climate adaptation tangible and personal. Drawing from walking methodologies, participatory design, landscape architecture, and coastal engineering, the project invites collective reflection on the region’s flood past and uncertain future. Along the way, performances create playful, affective encounters with the landscape and deepen participants’ connection to place.
The project brings together researchers from the Erasmus University Rotterdam (Environmental History and Politics) and TU Delft (Landscape Architecture, Coastal Engineering) as well as societal partners at the Watersnoodmuseum, Deltares, Studio Inscape, Hanzehogeschool Groningen’s Entrance – Centre of Expertise Energy, and the Zuidwestelijke Delta. Through transdisciplinary collaboration, the project develops a “living blueprint” for future climate engagement initiatives in the Dutch Delta.