Join us for these panel discussions and explore the critical issue of sedimentation in port cities. In the context of Rotterdam Architecture Month, Vereniging Deltametropool is organizing a series of panel discussions, spread over two days.

Each two-hour session will highlight projects that address different aspects of sedimentation and its impact on port cities. This series offers architects, planners, scientists and policymakers a platform to exchange knowledge and devise more sustainable approaches to living and building with sediment in delta areas.

Friday June 27th  | Part 1: Comparative Future Scenarios – Regional and inland Ports of Dutch Delta

Introduction: This project explores the definition and positioning of small ports within the global port network and examines the port-city interface. It gathers narratives from key actors and stakeholders to assess current trends and future scenarios. The project aims to understand how small ports contribute to regional development and their interaction with urbanization, focusing on economic, social, and environmental impacts. The findings will be presented in a comprehensive project catalogue and discussed in this event. 

• Time: 13:00-15:00 
• Location: Toekomst Atelier Oostkop, Museumpark 25, 3015 EK Rotterdam 
• Moderator: Alankrita Sarkar 
• Panelists: John Hanna, Mila Montezuma, Paul Gerretsen and Paolo De Martino. 
• Collaborators: Port Cities Futures, TU Delft, Deltametropolis Association 

Friday June 27th | Part 2: Turning points of the Delta 

Introduction: Our delta region has undergone drastic changes over the past half century. Global changes in our economy, technology and way of life have led to the rise of mega ports, large waterworks and further urbanization of coastal areas. How can we continue to live with water in the delta in the future? More than enough reason to speculate on what drastic changes await these coastal areas in the future. Using various spatial scenarios, drawn up by students from Delft University of Technology, the participants will analyze tipping points, discuss (im)possible scenarios and look at how actions today impact the future. These scenarios originate from the projects Bauhaus of the Sea Sails and Resilient Delta Living with Water, which aim to create a Dutch delta, a port system and a social system for living with water in the future.

• Time: 16:00-18:00 
• Location: Toekomst Atelier Oostkop, Museumpark 25, 3015 EK Rotterdam 
• Moderator: Paul Gerretsen 
• Panelists: Carola Hein 
• Collaborators: Port Cities Futures, TU Delft, Deltametropolis Association 

Saturday June 28th | Sediment Station 

Introduction: At the Schiehaven, in the middle of Maasstad Rotterdam, artist Maud van den Beuken opens a Sediment Station. She brings silt from the bottom of the Nieuwe Maas and the Nieuwe Waterweg onto dry land here, in order to stimulate us with this muddy matter to reflect and talk about the border area between land and water.

Rotterdam is proud of its river and the Netherlands is known worldwide for its expertise in dredging and water management. But rarely do we stop to think about what it means to keep the river in its current form. Every day, millions of kilos of silt are dredged to provide the port of Rotterdam with an efficient waterway. While efforts are being made worldwide with growing success to give rivers their own rights and a voice, and room for ecological restoration, the question is also being raised in the Netherlands whether all this dredging is still necessary now that port activities are increasingly moving towards the sea. In this field of tension, Van den Beuken makes a powerful symbolic gesture: she interrupts the routine by which the sludge is tacitly disposed of as unwanted ‘sludge’, and makes it a meaningful presence in the city. At the water’s edge, along the hard quay walls, this unwanted silt becomes a metaphor for a constructive muddiness and polyphony for which there is now little room. 

• Time: 13:00-15:00 
• Location: Festival Heart Schiemond, Schiehaven 17, 3024 EC Rotterdam
• Moderator: Maud van den Beuken 
• Panelists: Han Meijer 
• Collaborators: TENT, Deltametropolis Association 

Go to website