LOLA

Summers are getting drier and hotter, winters wetter. The seawater is rising, the groundwater is subsiding and the earth is shivering. Practically nowhere in the Netherlands does the climate challenge come together in such a concentrated way as in Groningen. Moreover, within about fifty kilometres here you find almost the entire Dutch relief and soil palette: from the high sandy soils of the Hondsrug and the peat soils of the Hunze Valley to the low sea clay areas along the Reitdiep and the high young sea clay of the Hogeland. This makes Groningen an ideal testing ground for climate adaptation and system change.

Sponsland is a manifestation (Groningen, January 2021), a traveling exhibition (September-December, 2021), a website and a 188 page book that zooms in on a section of the Groningen landscape. On the line from the Hondsrug to Schiermonnikoog, we encounter eight design locations: four in the city and four in the rural area. Selected by Yttje Feddes (Feddes/Olthof) and Peter Veenstra (LOLA), four Dutch and four international design agencies sketch a future picture of Groningen in the year 2120. These agencies have provided their plans with concrete steps, the first of which can already be taken tomorrow. The result is a perspective that not only solves the technical climate problems but also enhances the beauty of the city and its surroundings.

Sponsland has a significance that extends far beyond Groningen. The various media and the traveling exhibition translate all the acquired knowledge into generally applicable principles for climate-adaptive design. In this way, Sponsland aims to inspire everyone involved with climate adaptation. Parts of the exhibition can be seen at various locations and the full exhibition is on display in the city of Groningen during Let’s Gro.