Landscape for Amphibious Living Code PSC011 1e prijs / 1st prize This programme describes a landscape which could support a form of lifestyle which embraces water for its cultural, physical and emotional value.It proposes a landscape form which could assist with the recovery of a communal place within an individualistic society, divided by globalisation, and by water. The proposal, situated in areas of cyclical flooding, envisages dry islands (Filter-Havens) located just offshore from the commercial strip, to which people will migrate on the winter floods, to connect their house boats (Life Craft) to the reed bed water filters and communal facilites of the Causeway. In time, after a few seasons, the Havens will begin to develop their own character, as creative people leave traces of their craft on the islands, and a mythology of migration will build anticipation and excitement into an increasingly dynamic new society. Landscape for Amphibious Living Background Water-related societies have traditionally settled into a pattern of polarised lifestyles; the water becomes a stage for individual activity, with the land providing a place for the collective and communal, shared transactions. Globalisation offers increasing choice, economies of scale and mobility. Under its influence we recognise trends towards increases in individualisation, more frequent house moves, more variable social configurations of ÒfamilyÓ which change over time. In describing a future lifestyle, we can equate the fluidity of globalization with the openness of water, and it would be easy to define a landscape of Òwild housingÓ, a sort of hyper - individual water culture, with no formal structure, based on a typological equivalent of caravans. But this is impossible; the self-cleansing properties of water are a basic limitation on development; the desire as a species for human contact forces us to consider ideas of the communal. And yet the attractions of amphibious living are undeniable. Water is a fluid, changeable medium, a realm of contemplation and de-intensification. Through displacement, water renders the massive suddenly moveable. It is also open, with a weak spatial structure. The challenge of describing an amphibious lifestyle is to connect the individualised and private with shared and communal, while retaining the elemental quality of water. Project Description The proposal is located in an Outwash landscape, subject to seasonal inundation; In this scenario, periodic fluctuations in water level become a mechanism for annual renewal of landscapes, and a stimulus for seasonal movement. In this way we seek to establish a dynamic society which is closely linked to global networks, and simultaneously, and fundamentally, to cyclical seasonal changes. The proposal accepts an existing polder condition, with an established and stable infrastructure and agricultural system. These polder dykes and other structures, directly part of a global network of roads, airports, resources and communications networks will continue as a rapidly evolving commercial strip, offering economies of scale and levels of choice in service and manufacture which benefit from global connections. The strip culture will be almost unregulated. Within the strip will be located car pools, providing shared car access for all. The Commercial Strip infrastructure is intrusive and aggressive. In order to control the spatial context of the strip, it will be enveloped in a deep band of Forest, which also serves to filter and cleanse dust-borne particulates. Beyond the forest band is the Inundation Field, where during winter flooding, the land will be submerged, and in summer, the drying landscape will provide a common ground for plant growth. Within the inundation field, we envisage a series of Filter : Havens. These are localised dry islands which fulfill a dual role; they are landscape processors, cleansing impure water, and communal facilities, offering places for storage, localised eco-efficient services for dwellings, and a locus for community exchange. These Filter : Havens are the primary generator of urban form within the amphibious landscape, and are 120 m long, 30 m wide and 6 m high. They provide a location for the Island Haven, a dense cluster of public facilities and accomodation, which includes work places at the head of a public route. The public route is a Causeway, offering a place for community interaction. Located along the Causeway are Processor Pavilions, which contain storage for bicycles, fuel, and shed-like workrooms. They will animate the street and provide places for temporary inhabitation and interaction. The sloping sides of the Filter Havens form a system of secondary (vertical) and tertiary (horizontal) recycling reed beds. At the water end of the causeway is the Communal Room, a landscape space for public activity oriented towards the water. The Filter Haven is a solid structure anchoring and protecting individual floating dwellings : the Living Craft. These are floating steel structures, comprising Tower superstructure, and supporting Hull. The horizontal surface can be built on according to personal requirements. The tower is the location for for the primary ÒBlackwaterÓ composting facility, and other basic requirements and is connected to the Filter Haven by a Jetty, which marks the threshold of the private dwelling along the Causeway. When the waters rise, it is the end of a summer of creativity and growth at the Filter Haven. As the Life Craft floats against the jetty on the rising tide, the mind turns to new horizons - the natural time Òto move onÓ to make new neighbours and see new places. The Migration has begun.