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Construction of the landscape garden NL2120 on Wageningen Campus

Published on
April 26, 2022

The construction of the landscape garden NL2120 has started last week. The garden will be on the field between Orion and Omnia.

In 2019, Wageningen University & Research (WUR) published the Report: A nature-based future for the Netherlands in 2120. It is an integral perspective on what the Netherlands could look like in 100 years if you assume nature-based solutions for issues such as climate change, urbanization and biodiversity. This perspective, now known as NL2120, came about as a real One Wageningen project. In interactive work sessions, almost 20 experts from WUR brought together their knowledge and images in a short time to create a stimulating, positive story about the future. The landscape architects and spatial designers of Wageningen Environmental Research (WENR) facilitated this joint quest and brought it together in an imaginative map of the Netherlands in 2120.

NL2120 stands for responding to the diversity that our landscape offers. It links social tasks to clear landscape-forming principles and essential qualities of a site, such as resistance, resilience, biodiversity and the individuality of the place. This philosophy has been the source of inspiration for the redesign of the field between Orion and Omnia. Characteristics of this location were the presence of a large amount of soil (the hill) and the wet conditions.

The design brief was to create an area that invites exploration and connection. Two Landscape Architecture students from Wageningen University, Thamar Zeinstra and Raidun Schott have analyzed the area under the supervision of Michaël van Buuren and Martine van Moûrik (WENR) and made a design proposal. The result is a gradient-rich interplay of lines in which high and low, wet and dry form the basis for a new world in which it is wonderful to stay. The area also contains various elements that show how WUR implements the sustainable use of natural resources. A subsidy has been made available from the WICC fund to realize the project, see the project proposal (in Dutch).

Construction starts with the groundwork. To this end, the Food Jars have been moved first. These now stand in a new arrangement west of Atlas, similar to how they were located at the Administration Building on Costerweg, where they come from. The memorial tiles from the Walk of Fame will be placed on the new terrace at Impulse. The furniture that is now on the field, including the benches with 100 YEARS WUR, will be given a new place in the landscape garden.

Planting and sowing are planned for the end of April. Since it is already fairly late in the year for many herbs from the flower meadow mixtures, a mixture of annual field flowers is also sown. This ensures that the bottom is covered, so that it does not start to spray. As the flower meadows develop further, these species will slowly but surely disappear.