From minute grains to massive buildings – in the exhibition Landscape Crafting, you follow the journey of sand. Every day in the Netherlands, vast quantities of natural raw materials are moved. Sand is the most commonly extracted material, ultimately used as the construction basis for our streets, squares and buildings. Through sand, the story of the ongoing transformation of the Dutch landscape is depicted.

In their research, architects Holly Dale and Willie Vogel explore sand as a raw material, construction material, architectural element, and its poetic representation. The exhibition brings together multiple perspectives – from the concrete to the abstract – where sand reappears in ever-changing forms. The stories are depicted through installations, photographs, film, audio and material studies.

Especially for this exhibition, artist Lara Almarcegui and designers Rink Schelling and Eva van Eck (Urban Glaze Studio) present their work. Almarcegui combines a wall-sized graphic installation with video work. Whilst the graphic calculates the vast amounts of sand beneath our feet in the Netherlands, the film ‘Kieswerk Safien Platz’ presents a starting point of the sand’s journey, presenting a Swiss quarry temporarily transformed into a place of contemplation. Urban Glaze Studio harness local waste streams in innovative ways, presenting a series of glaze tests mixed from predominantly dredged material.

Landscape Crafting invites you to look at the built environment with fresh eyes and to reflect on the origins, impact and future of the materials from which our cities are built.