GARDEN
A Growing ecological Commons for city wildlife and community
An integral part of our Broedplaats at the Govert Flinckstraat 286 is the development of an ecological sculptural garden that is created in collaboration with INDEBT co-initiator Rein Kooyman; a project in which his practice merges landscape gardening with visual art. This artwork is both a site of research and a social sanctuary: an ecological oasis in the heart of De Pijp, offering a moment of refuge for city dwellers, from artists and creatives to children, elders, and neighbors.
Rein Kooymans practice focusses on natural materials such as stone and moss, transforming these into installations. Here, his focus turns to the classic Dutch concrete paving tile (stoeptegel), an emblem of post-war modernism and functionality. By reshaping this square, concrete unit into flowing, circular movements, Kooyman reimagines something rigid as something organic, open, and alive.
The garden is both enduring and always in flux, shaped by the cycles of the Dutch seasons. Built with organic leftover materials, it forms a living tension between allowing things to grow and intervening, between what is natural and what is constructed. A garden, after all, is not a piece of untouched nature, but a cultivated in-between space where human design and natural growth meet, clash, and sometimes merge.
The project has been realized with the support of the AFK, Gemeente of Amsterdam, and Waterschap Amstel, Gooi and Vecht.
