The Vertical archive

Type | Pavillion Year | 2023 Project site | Rotterdam, Netherlands

Client | Weelde Rotterdam/DeStu

The "Vertical Archive" is a pavilion built from waste wood, salvaged from demolition containers and meticulously stacked into a vertical containment structure. Once full, the structure becomes an archive of gathered materials, showcasing the rich patterns of urban bio-waste.

The project is located in what used to be Weelde, a post-industrial greenfield site occupied by a range of grassroots initiatives, including artist ateliers, a restaurant, and a community garden. Weelde embodied many of the bottom-up, collective, and community-oriented values antithetical to capitalist urban development, but was unfortunately evicted as the city moved to redevelop the area. Given this context, the monument aims to challenge the ongoing processes of urban demolition and redevelopment, which result in material waste but also often lead to gentrification and social exclusion. As an ode to the abundance of waste and the potential of reuse, it gestures towards another vision of urban development, one that would not seek to erase and rebuild but to remember, reconfigure, and regenerate what is already there.