This year the chair of Landscape Architecture of the Delft University of Technology is for the third time annually contributing to Oerol. The project, named \u201cLandscape Architecture ON Site, Being Part of Oerol 2013,\u201d will be constructed on the festival site – the island of Terschelling. The aim of the project is to express the landscape of Terschelling in a landscape architectonic installation or research-guided methodology. We, the tutors Denise Piccinini and Michiel Pouderoijen, are currently working with a group of twelve master students of different backgrounds at the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture. In only a seven-week period, the students will finalise their schematic designs for construction on the island of Terschelling. At present, we have thus far selected the strongest concept fabricated by the students for further detail development.<\/p>\n

For the 2013 course agenda, we have adjusted the design process by structuring it into three main phases and a conclusive reflection. The introductory phase is about reading and discussing concepts and examples, comprising a field trip to explore the site and a more rational investigation in the atelier. On the first day of the studio, students were immediately confronted with some notions involved in this specific project for Oerol including aesthetics of art, crafts, temporality, interaction with the public, use of natural or artificial materials in relation to nature, being part of a building process, and methods like \u201clearning by doing\u201d implicit in the act of making. These preliminary days were instructive and critical to introduce the main themes of the project and construct a framework of references.<\/p>\n

During a three-day introductory field trip to Terschelling, the context and identity of the place was defined by students mainly by sensory perception. Throughout the site visit, we made several bicycle excursions on the island and visited the possible site locations for the project. Additionally, students executed short brain storm sessions in the depot of Oerol. The main idea was to make a definition of place by experiencing it through the senses and by searching for the natural patterns, materials, and stories related to it. At the same time, students and teachers became acquainted with each other, with the island and with its inhabitants.<\/p>\n

These first impressions and experiences from the excursion to Terschelling were the starting point for further investigation in the atelier in a more rigorous manner, where students went on studying and deepening some aspects they have found on site like the morphology of the island, the tide, wind, vegetation, etc. Experience of the place and results of the research formed the base for the project, which puts specific aspects of the landscape on stage at the Oerol festival.<\/p>\n