The landscape installation Windwerk is built in the spring of 2016 on the beach of the Dutch Wadden Sea island Terschelling. Windwerk is a temporary marram grass landscape inspired by M.C. Escher metamorphosis drawings and a follow-up of the projects Jaarringen (2006) and Pannenland (2013) which made the natural processes of dune formation culturally visible. Windwerk goes one step further. In a visual manner, the operation and processes of dune formation are not only made visible but also stimulated. In addition to the functioning of natural processes like the wind, social and cultural processes and elements have an important place.

Windwerk is realized with the help of 225 students, volunteers and scholars. In experimental workshops and building weekends, sharing of knowledge and ‘learning by doing’ was central. The project is also an experiment. An experiment in possible new insights in young dune formation. From May 2016 researchers and students from Wageningen University map the transformation and developments of the Windwerk landscape. For the landscape theatre festival Oerol 2016, an additional cultural layer has been added temporarily to the landscape. A photo exhibition in which the invisible, the small and large processes of dune formation, are made visible. Windwerk survived the winter storms and new shoots of marram grass are growing. We will continue the monitoring.

The result of Windwerk is impressive and encourages discussion on possible new forms of management of the coastal zone. In August 2017 we present together with researchers from Wageningen University the Windwerk project at the International Ecology Conference INTECOL2017 in Beijing, China.