Joanna Kosowicz
Delta Interventions
Waiting. Imagining the future of military architecture of the Atlantic Wall in a dynamic landscape of Wadden Sea.
The rough concrete volumes of the bunker ruins stand on the coast, forgotten and falling apart in a soft, ephemeral mass of water and sand. Remains of the Atlantic wall stretch along the whole North Sea coast and in that sense are a direct translation of the territorial scale of the “war” into the architectural one.
The location of the intervention at the place of a former strongpoint on the Wadden Sea island of Terschelling emphasizes the contrast between the solid bunkers and dynamics of nature. Instead of protecting against the dominant, unstoppable forces, the project tries to use them as the main actors in the architectonic setting. The different spaces of the new ensemble lead the visitor through subsequent spaces in a form of a strongly contextualized, ritual experience.
The design is inspired by the conditions of observing and anticipation. Following the story of the bunkers that were left on sand to become ruins the new complex will be occupied only once in a while, then be abandoned and slowly deteriorate. The cycle will close waiting for another chapter.