Zuiderzee Museum

A garden about sedimentation, fluctuation and transformation

As part of the 60th anniversary of the Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen, Netherlands, GROSS. MAX. was commissioned in collaboration with Piet Oudof to develop a landscape vision for the wider setting of the museum. The Dutch Zuiderzee Museum presents Dutch art, culture and heritage on the border of land and water. The brief for the project was for the design of a new museum garden at a triangular shaped peninsular on three surrounded by water adjacent to the current open air museum village. The proposed museum garden expresses the museum slogan ‘Land of Water’ par excellence. The garden is about succession, sedimentation, fluctuation and transformation; it will reconcile nature and culture in a condensed and ever-changing format. The Harbour, The Sanctuary and the Horizon are the different water edge conditions of which the garden will respond and relate to. The Harbour edge is outlined by the existing dike which landform reshaped into a sculptural landform. The dike provides a platform for temporary pavilions. The Sanctuary is the nature reserve of the sheltered water and wetland edge along the northern edge of the site. Here a series of planted landforms create a fantastic display of planting designed by Piet Oudolf set against the backdrop of reeds and wetlands. Finally, where the site widens out and opens towards the east the vast expanse of the IJsselmeer and the Horizon itself becomes the distinctive edge condition. The proposal here is for a series of shallow reflective pools each which different ground conditions ranging from black peat to white seashells creating a magnificent kaleidoscope of Dutch light. The existing woodland interior will be thinned to allow light penetration and the establishment of groundcover vegetation. An existing waterbody will be reshaped into a circular pool which acts as marvelous void in the woodland and surrounded by Piet Oudof’s magnificent planting.

Located on the shore of the Ijsselmeer, the museum combines nature exploration with local cultural history.