World-class Micro-National Park

The Laboratory for Microclimates participated with their art project "BijBinnenhofpark" in the national contest for most beautiful "National Park of World Class". Unfortunately, the "BijBinnenhofpark" in The Hague was not chosen; perhaps the size of 50 x 50 centimeters was a little below the average park-size? However, our submission was noticed by the organisers and we were invited by the Ministry of Economic Affairs to attend the Festival of Change at Fort Voordorp near Utrecht. We designed a workshop "Micro National Park of World Class".

At the Micro-Park workshop, participants were challenged to create a world-class mini-park by themselves! They used natural materials from three Dutch National Parks; Weerribben-Wieden, Drents Friese Wold and Dutch Dunes. For this we visited the park rangers of these parks to collect and film materials for the workshops. For example, we picked "Krabbescheer", a star-shaped water plant during a boat trip with the forest ranger in the Weerribben, and found Kei-leem, a clay-like soil in the Drents Friese Wold. 

During the Festival of Change, participants received an introduction by the Microclimate Laboratory, after which the participants themselves formed teams. Within a time frame of 15-30 minutes, the participants assembled a mini-park with unique scenery. This could be a copy of an existing park or a whole new park, they also had to give their creations new park names. An expert jury went into consideration and elected the winner of the World Class Micro-National Park. The winning team was offered a tour of the BijBinnenhofpark in The Hague.