RE-source is a collaborative project between Design Academy Eindhoven – lectoraat Places and Traces, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam – Faculty of Humanities, Gemeente Rotterdam and Studio Ester van de Wiel.
In this project, five artists/designers have consecutively researched waste streams within the municipality of Rotterdam. AmperDesign researched the waste stream sludge and soil and proposed a circular approach to soil as a living system.
AmperDesign researched the sludge cycle by mapping out the residual flow of soil and sludge in Rotterdam from July to August 2018.
Approaching the sludge depots as a 'biotopic factory' creates a new way of dealing with sludge that has been dredged from urban waterways.
The sludge depot can be seen both as a biotope and its commercial function: drying and maturing sludge into reusable top soil.
AmperDesign proposes a symbiotic process in which pioneer fibers transform the sludge into valuable soil in 'evaporation architecture'.