The Waddensea is calling for action! – News – Architecture Workroom Brussels

Water as Leverage Waddensea - Trilateral conference, Wilhelmshaven, December 2022

Water as Leverage – Wadden Sea explores what the Water as Leverage approach could mean for the Wadden Sea, with local cases in the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. We have been working on a Call for Action in the Waddensea, using the Water as Leverage approach. In this light, we set sail for Wilhelmshaven in Germany to join the 14th Trilateral Conference of the Waddensea on 28 and 29 November 2022, bringing together Denmark, The Netherlands and Germany.

For this conference, we were invited to co-organise a working session to introduce the approach together with Deltares, Programma Rijke Waddenzee and the Dutch Enterprise Agency. In this working session, we discussed the added value of a pre-design phase mapping the insights of local actors in an integral way, and how it led to the recognition of the same clusters of challenges across the coastal region and its islands. The next day we got to go in depth into the challenges of the Danish cases of Fanø, Esbjerg and Ribe.

The coming months we will implement the results of these two days in our document ‘Setting the Scene for a call for action for climate adaptation in the Waddensea’ which will literally set the scene for design teams to support the project definition of the different cases.

The ‘Setting the Scene’ document will explain the Water as Leverage methodology – previously applied to enhance sustainable transformation on the Asian coast –, go deeper into the specific context of the Waddensea, and present seven cases in The Netherlands (Texel, Terschelling and Harlingen), Germany (Emden), and Denmark (Fanø, Esbjerg and Ribe) for which the Water as Leverage-approach can be re-interpreted.

‘Setting the Scene for a call for action for climate adaptation in the Waddensea’ is expected to be published in the beginning of 2023.

More News

Joachim Declerck joins the new Flemish Government Architect's expert group

For the next five years, Joachim Declerck will be part of the expert group of Flemish Government Architect Véronique Claessens. → more

Who heats the city?

Workroom and the City of Ghent are joining forces for a working exhibition on a fossil-free Ghent. → more

Host the Sponge Landscapes exhibition

A travelling version of the open workroom SPONGE LANDSCAPES exhibition at your venue? → more

This autumn: open workroom Houses for the Common Good

A third open workroom in the series will take place this from October 2026. → more

We are changing names!

Architecture Workroom Brussels becomes WORKROOM, House for Transformation → more

Toward a Resilient Water Landscape Without Borders

Workshop day on Borderless Resilient Waterscapes within the framework of JCAR ATRACE → more

Since 2010, Architecture Workroom Brussels has focused on the future of our living environment. The organisation began as a safe haven to address the link between space and societal transitions, aimed at fostering a futureproof design practice, commissioning and building culture.

It has now become evident that the transformation of our streets, neighbourhoods, and landscapes is both a prerequisite and a lever for achieving societal goals in synergy. Yet we observe that these transformations remain difficult to imagine and implement. They span so many sectors and involve so many actors that responsibility falls on everyone, and therefore, ultimately, on no one.

That is why we make it our mission to create the space that connects them. And with this refined mission comes a new name: WORKROOM, House for transformation. WORKROOM is the shared space where the future of our living environment is not only imagined but also organised.

We are currently taking the lead on three mission-driven transformations:

SOCIETAL INCUBATORS - By 2030, stakeholders from the youth, culture, sports, care and education sectors will join forces to create renewed societal spaces that tackle loneliness and counteract the fragmentation and pressure on public infrastructure.
FOSSIL-FREE NEIGHBOURHOODS - By 2030, at least ten neighbourhoods will be underway with the transition to fossil-free energy in an inclusive and affordable way, with a view to completely phase-out fossil fuels by 2040.
SPONGE LANDSCAPES - By 2030, we will have achieved our water, agriculture and nature goals through a single, coherent approach at catchment area level, in which strong regional coalitions collectively enhance the landscape's sponge capacity.

To make these transformations a reality, WORKROOM works shoulder to shoulder with pioneering designers, local authorities, organisations and businesses, governments, knowledge institutions and impact investors.

Through co-creative design, we imagine shared pathways to the future in exhibitions, publications, innovation programmes and public programmes. These are the workrooms where we connect the actors capable of realising these transformations. From there, we design shared ownership and the organisational, funding and policy models that lead to real change.

The name is simpler. The stakes are higher. WORKROOM is the shared space where we tackle the social and spatial transformations that no one can achieve alone. In an era of polarisation, compartmentalisation and instability, that is perhaps the most radical thing we can do.