discipline
category
phase
location
year
feature
architecture
built
construction completed
eindhoven, the netherlands
2026
https://designwanted.com/dutch-design-week-festival-2026-raw-rebel-real/
https://ddw.nl/en/programme/wethouse-growing-architecture-from-wetlands
a greenhouse grown from wetland plants, such as reed and alder. plants that inhabit the shifting boundaries between land and water become walls, screens, and shelter. what grows in wetlands returns as architecture.
through paludiculture, the cultivation of plants on wet and rewetted land, wethouse explores an architecture rooted in the cycles of water, growth, harvest, and decay. wetland biomass is transformed into building materials, from woven reed screens and plant-fiber panels to thatch and clay-fiber composites. here, the wetland is not simply a landscape surrounding architecture, but the ground from which architecture is made.
the greenhouse is both a product of the wetland and an instrument for its cultivation. it gathers rain, holds humidity, supports plant growth, and nurtures the next generation of biomass. water becomes irrigation. plants become materials. materials become shelter. shelter, in turn, sustains the conditions for life to grow.
presented at dutchdesign week 2026, wethouse takes the form of a partial greenhouse, an inhabitable architectural fragment. It is at once a material experiment, a spatial prototype, and a place to sit, pause, and read. rather than resisting wetness, wethouse asks what architecture might become when it learns to live with water.
an architecture grown from wetlands, and growing wetlands in return.