2 THE CLIENT – ANNA’S TUIN EN RUIGTE 2.1
CLIENT DESCRIPTION Anna’s Tuin & Ruigte (ATR) is an initiative of the University of Amsterdam and the surrounding community. It is their goal to connect the social and natural environment, improve biodiversity and actively stimulate and generate knowledge about nature and alternative forms of agriculture. ATR is named after the former owner of the farm, Anna van den Broeke. The farmland later became part of the University of Amsterdam. Her old farmhouse, Anna’s Hoeve, now housing cafe De Polder, is a reminder of the agricultural past of the area, when farms in the Watergraafsmeer area where Figure 3. Logo Anna's Tuin en Ruigte producing food for Amsterdam. Located in a small, unique (ATR) part of polder nature in Amsterdam Science Park, Anna’s Tuin is a permaculture venture that also gives nature space to flourish and grow in biodiversity, besides food production. The key aim of ATR is to become a knowledge centre, a living lab and a meeting place where both social and natural connections can grow in abundance, diversity and resilience.5 Since 2016, Marleen Feldbrugge is the coordinator of the garden. With help of a fund, it is possible for Marleen to work three days a week for two years on the project. For this design procedure, Marleen was our client, representing the whole team of Anna’s Tuin & Ruigte. 2.2 OBJECTIVES Objectives of ATR
Description of objective
Knowledge centre
Providing information about nature and alternative agriculture to all members of society
Living lab
A place for both scientific research and civil science
Meeting place
A place for the community place to relax, have a walk, and have meetings
Food production
Produce food for neighbouring cafe/restaurant De Polder, possibly for Eurest (caterer in Science park 904) and for the student community at Science Park.
Table 1: an overview of the main objectives of Anna’s Tuin en Ruigte as stated by the client.
2.3 SITE DESCRIPTION In this section, the most important on-site features will be discussed. The design site is a 1.5 hectare plot situated in Science Park next to the main UvA-building (Science Park 904) in Amsterdam. Originally, the function of the site is to be a water storage area and a nature habitat that is part of a larger corridor. The site is very suitable for water storage as it was situated 5.5 meters below sea level. In the beginning of October this year, a contractor enlarged the site’s potential to store rainwater by widening the already existing ditches. The site is completely surrounded by ditches with water. The soil that was dug out of the ditches was partly used to heighten parts of the site to 5