Water Moss Rocks
Prix de Rome 2006 (gold medal)
Water Moss Rocks is an ecological intervention in the city centre of Amsterdam that combines increasing extreme rainfall with the hidden and abandoned tunnel system beneath Mr. Visserplein.
Amsterdam is shaped by its struggle with water and by the opportunities that water provides. The city is now facing a new challenge: water from heaven.
Each year, 72 million liters of rainwater are collected from surrounding roofs and squares, creating an ecological waterscape within the tunnel system.
In collaboration with the nearby Hortus Botanicus, the “Hortus Moss Rock” becomes a sanctuary for ferns and mosses that are at risk of disappearing due to the renovation of the city’s canal walls coming decades.
In the heart of the old city, the dynamics of clean rainwater invite new forms of use.
Testing the transplantation of mosses, lychen and ferns from Amsterdam’s canal walls onto the “Hortus Moss Rock.”