As an eco-social designer and artist, Waal moves between the Netherlands and France. In Arles, southern France, she has led the artistic research at Atelier Luma for several years—an experimental design lab of the Luma Foundation. There, designers and artists work with local, renewable materials to develop creative solutions to regional issues. For example, materials used in the construction of the new art centre in Arles include crystallized salt from nearby salt flats, pigments extracted from invasive plants, and waste from sunflower agriculture—all developed through Atelier Luma.
Her work hasn’t gone unnoticed beyond Arles. On the eve of the Atelier Luma building’s grand opening, now fully renovated with bio-based materials, she was visited by two guests from Friesland: Arcadia’s Artistic Director Sjoerd Bootsma and Head of Development Dorine Schreurs. Their question: Would Henriëtte be willing to initiate a similar experimental lab in Fryslân, where designers and locals explore the landscape challenges of the future?
“The fact that they came all the way to southern France to meet me and see the lab with their own eyes showed me how aligned our ambitions are,” Waal recalls. “When you work closely with a landscape, you need to feel it—see the materials, walk the soil. Sjoerd and Dorine understood that. They didn’t just want to talk; they wanted to experience.”
designing the future of the peatlands
Henriëtte has now been working in Fryslân for over a year, leading the Veenweide Atelier (Peat Meadow Atelier). “It’s always a bit vulnerable to go public with new ideas,” she says. “They need space and time to take root. Long-term cooperation with the people in the region is crucial. Otherwise, it just snaps back into old systems. We’re trying to find new ways forward—and that requires room to grow, also politically.”
The Frisian peatlands represent one of the greatest landscape challenges in the region. This low-lying area is iconic to the Frisian identity and home to many people. But decades of drainage have caused the land to sink, disrupted the water balance, and led to high carbon emissions.
Over the past year, the Veenweide Atelier has launched four eco-social design trajectories in collaboration with local farmers, ecologists, policy makers, and soil scientists. At the heart of this work is collectivity: designing in connection with people, place, and nature. When disciplines cross paths, and outside perspectives are welcomed in, fresh and holistic ideas begin to emerge.
nine tasks for transformation
Every design project in the Atelier must address at least some of the region’s major transition challenges. These have been summarised into a “homework list” of nine urgent themes: peat, water, pollution, biodiversity, energy transition, new economies, heritage, housing, and foundations.
“The peat meadow is a region in crisis,” says Henriëtte. “But that’s also where the potential lies. If everything still works perfectly, there’s little need for change. Crisis areas are the best places for innovation.”
imagining new futures
The hope is that the Veenweide Atelier will grow into a permanent design lab—a place of research and imagination. A space where designers use their ability to navigate uncertainty, imagine alternatives, and make with purpose. And where collaboration across residents, governments, researchers, farmers, entrepreneurs, and artists leads to entirely new relationships with the land.
Imagine, for instance, a farmer inspired to grow plants that not only absorb CO₂ but can also be used for climate-friendly construction. Or seeing, firsthand, that using bacteria grown on waste streams to dye textiles really does work.
Henriëtte: “When you can experience something on a small scale, it becomes easier to imagine it on a large one. The Peat Meadow Atelier wants to create space for hopeful futures.”