Programmed GobstopperExpo 2000, Dutch Garden, Germany (1998–2000)

Type:Garden, Utilitarian Green

Designteam:Bureau B+B stedebouw en landschapsarchitectuurin collaboration withMVRDV and Jaqueline van der Kloet

Program:Directions to the pavilion for millions of visitors

Surface:9.000 m2

Budget:€ 450.000,-

Client:Stichting NederlandseWereldtentoonstellingen

The Dutch Garden at Expo 2000 in Hanover was, like the firm’s project, Looking for Jane in Makeblijde, an exhibition garden with a cast-iron underlying concept. The stacked landscapes of the Dutch pavilion by mvrdv were a statement about dealing with space scarcity in the densely populated Nether-lands. The pavilion itself was extremely compact – so compact, indeed, that 8,000 m² of empty space were left around it. To find a suitable design for the space, the par-ty commissioning the Dutch contribution, the Stichting Nederland Wereldtentoonstel-lingen (Dutch world-exhibitions foundation) held a private competition, in which Bureau B+B emerged as winner.The firm’s design for the Dutch Garden was a direct response to the pavilion itself. The designers con-ceived of the space as an as yet unused location, awaiting development: a breath of fresh air in a country where every square metre has been assigned a use. Unused terrains, in a temporary ‘pioneer’ phase and

featuring a hotchpotch of planting – new na-ture in its initial form – served as the basis ofthe design, with visitors having to find their way through an extended carpet of various flowers. In order to set a ‘natural’ process in motion, only a starting situation was cre-ated, from which the garden gradually took on fixed form in the course of the exhibi-tion. Dynamic influences, such as weather, plant growth and the spontaneous move-ments of visitors contributed to the gar-den’s changing appearance. No end result was involved. This apparent randomness was actually planned to an extremely high degree; it was also exceptionally high-tech and typically Dutch. The substrate con-sisted of different layers of red mine-stone and black sediment. On it, planting squares were indicated with four different plant densities. At spots where visitors walked particularly frequently, the small black slit in the coarser red minestone disappeared, and planting became less likely. Elsewhere,

the flora became thicker. The 20 different species of plant (no shrubs or trees were used, only bulbs, annu-als and perennials) had different colours and flowering times. An extensive network of pipes for drip irrigation ensured that a process that normally takes five years would attain completion within a year. Platforms, parti-tions and other elements made of non-living material, which can indicate a specific use, were consciously

avoided. Nevertheless, one compromise was unavoid-able: in order to somewhat streamline the expected mil-lions of visitors, a winding route towards the entrance was designed. Through – preplanned – chance and ran-domness, the garden changed, like a gobstopper, from day to day, providing a continuously changing context for the Dutch pavilion.

Scheme of the different stages the garden has gone through: from 1 October 1999 to 27 October 2010