after the award

What do you do after you have won an award? After winning the Eo Wijersstichting’s 2022-23 contest for the Mid Zeeland region we continued working on the plans with which we had gained the award in the first place. The Solidarity University (part of the winning team) contributed to this project.

What was the contest about again?
In four different Dutch regions, multidisciplinary design teams took on challenges in the fields of living and the environment. The Eo Wijers Award for the Mid Zeeland region was given to the plan ‘Een ontdekkingsreis naar nieuw Zeeland’ (A Voyage of Discovery to New Zeeland) . In short, the plan deals with the defence against high water and the fact that that battle does not necessarily have to be fought with the aid of dykes and dams. In fact, when you make designs plans for the arrangement of the environment, you could capitalise on the fact that the water level fluctuates.

This is what is currently happening with Een ontdekkingsreis naar nieuw Zeeland’
Recently, the Eo Wijersstichting published an interview with Jim van Belzen in which he gives an update on Een ontdekkingsreis naar nieuw Zeeland (see this link https://eowijers.nl/nieuws/hoe-gaat-het-nu-met-de-winnaar-van-regio-midden-zeeland to the text (in Dutch). At this very moment there are various places in the Mid Zeeland region where this way of looking at possibilities and techniques is already being employed. Social Innovation is also applied. The regional library Zeeuwse Bibliotheek organised a thematic evening on the subject. Guided conversations and picture prompts were used in conversations about what climate change and rising sea levels mean for the inhabitants of Zeeland. Something similar will take place during the Wetenschapscommunicatiedag (Day of Science Communication) and the Deltacongres (Delta Convention).