J/K courtyard garden on Roeterseiland finally taking shape
For those who think that Roeterseiland is now more or less finished after all the renovations: not quite yet. But now things are finally moving forward with the courtyard garden of the J/K building currently under construction: greening in progress. The plan includes a vegetable garden, seating areas, and several picnic tables.
The courtyard garden of the J/K building, which has been largely unused and therefore little known for years, is being redesigned this spring now that funds have become available at the start of the new financial year. Students from the Placemaking programme (in Dutch) are involved in the project with the aim of making the courtyard garden a meaningful place for students and staff. In Placemaking, students work in co-creation with local partners and stakeholders to improve the UvA campuses.
Blackberry bushes
For the past few weeks, there has been sawing, digging, shovelling and lugging earth and soil in the courtyard garden. A footbridge has been built over a kind of ditch between an entrance door and the courtyard garden, and tree trunks, half-sawn trees and pruned shrubs are now scattered everywhere. Suddenly, the pond, which was previously overgrown with blackberry bushes, is now visible, with a few trees still standing.
Vegetable garden
Whether the Placemakers will succeed in their plans to give J/K a significant greening boost will become clear in the coming months: the final design of the courtyard garden includes a number of picnic tables and movable seating areas, a vegetable garden and a canopy. To combat heat, the tall trees will remain, more greenery will be added and the pond will be converted into a so-called Wadi (water, drainage and infiltration).
The pond will thus become a kind of lowered, green ditch that collects rainwater, purifies it and allows it to infiltrate the soil. It helps combat flooding and drought, promotes biodiversity and remains dry for most of the year. The former laboratory storage shed (in a previous life, it mainly housed physicists in J/K) will become a shed for gardening equipment and a few (quiet) games. The shed will also have a green roof. Greening in progress.
