Thomas Denney
Gustavo Mendoza
Jac Salinksy
Bradley Weston
Kurt Ziegel

In 2009 the government of State of Fryslan in the Netherlands hosted an international ideas competition for the creation of  world sustainability center.  A headquarters for research in climate change and human impact on the natural environment. The site for the competition is the Afsluitdijk, a 30km man-made dike.

The intent of our design was to create a space that reminds the user of the intersection of nature and man and their place in the larger network, while giving them access to work within it.  The site was positioned perpendicular to the Afsluitdijk while the center’s physicality acts as a permeable skin allowing the flow of light and views in and out.  The dia-grid construct of the site acts as a starting point for creating an ever expanding landscape along the dike.  In the Dutch agricultural tradition , beginning the creation of new programmable land that intersects with local ecologies.  Through this approach the dike moves beyond hydrological retention, becoming a sustainable addition to the Dutch landscape.