Under construction for ever:
Building an amphitheatre out of sludge, willow and reed with a growing group of people. How do we relate to the natural ecosystem and how can we strengthen the connection with our environment? What does the Dutch 'makeability' mentality mean for a sustainable relationship with our natural surrounding. AmphiTerp is a continuous building project that grows every year based on Boerderij de Meent. The Terp is a venue for collective events such as performances and debates that revolve around 'landscape' in the broadest sense.
This project was made possible in part by Silbersee Opera
Bouwlust:
An eagerness to make. Sea levels are rising and the location of the AmphiTerp is more then 5 meters below it. What does necessity mean in this context? Are we in a hurry to build higher dykes or are we fighting the symptoms of our alienated relationship with the land itself?
Living with the water
A place bound collective building project
Just like a beaver that creates its own biotope by building a dam, humans also play an active and physical role in the ecosystem. The mutual dependence between man and his natural environment requires working in dialogue with the ecosystem.
Should we learn to live with the dynamic nature of water around us? The traditional terp as a landscape form has almost disappeared from the Dutch landscape. But bringing back swamplands with Terps can potentially store CO2, store water and be an ecological hotspot. Could we reconnect ourselves to the landscape through an old/new ritual: the slow and collective building of terps?
BaggerBootcamp
A growing collective of people for a growing amphitheatre.
During baggerbootcamps (bagger is the Dutch word for sludge) groups of people come to the farmland for a day of willow cutting, weaving living structures out of them, getting muddy and doing physical labour. If you want to join a baggerbootcamp, follow @amper.design on instagram or subscribe to the grondverbond newsletter (at the bottom of the page). On a youtube page there is a documentation of the process in different videos: https://www.youtube.com/@amperdesign