The Netherlands is a densely populated country combining a high standard of welfare with a great democratic tradition. It could well be the prime example of a country that has always had to (and knows how to) mold the environment to suit its will. It’s a country that time and time again has won more land from the sea. Perhaps in the near future extra space will be found not just by increasing the country’s width but by expanding vertically. This kind of operation would seem to be applicable to many more countries. It raises questions of global significance.
Can increasing population densities coexist with an increase in the quality of life? What conditions should be satisfied before such increases in density take place? What role will nature, in the widest sense, play in such an increase in density? Is not the issue here “new nature,” literally and metaphorically?
This kind of effort can be the Netherlands’ specific contribution to the ecological spectrum of the World Fair in Hannover 2000, which seems to be devoted particularly to a nostalgic glimpse of ecology: a simple critique of technology and the consumer society, of asphalt and machinery. What the Dutch entry shows is precisely a mix of technology and nature, emphasizing nature’s make-ability and artificiality: technology and nature need not be mutually exclusive, they can perfectly well reinforce one another.
Nature arranged on many levels provides both an extension to existing nature and an outstanding symbol of its artificiality. It provides multi-level public space as an extension to existing public spaces. And even by arranging existing programs on many levels it provides yet more extra space, at ground level, for visibility and accessibility, for the unexpected, for “nature.” Dividing up the space in the Dutch entry and arranging it on multiple levels surrounds the building with spatial events and other cultural manifestations. The building becomes a monumental multi-level park. It takes on the character of a happening.
The fact that this kind of building does not yet exist means that it also gets to function as a laboratory. It not only saves space, it also saves energy, time, water and infrastructure. A mini-ecosystem is created. It’s a survival kit. Of course, it also tests existing qualities: it attempts to find a solution for a lack of light and land. At the same time the density and the diversity of functions builds new connections and new relationships. It can therefore serve as a symbol for the multi-faceted nature of society: it presents the paradoxical notion that as diversity increases, it seems so too does cohesion.