Archive of Vibrant Matter

Basic Data

Description: Louis Le Roy (1924—2012) was a maverick landscape architect who embarked upon a remarkable project in 1983, the Ekokathedraal near Mildam in the Netherlands. Conceived as a construction with a 1000-year timespan, Le Roy bought a farm field, requested that the local municipality deliver him inert building waste (bricks, concrete) from which he created hand-made structures without the use of mortar. Planting trees on the site, he saw that these structures, the flora and fauna would interact, co-develop and co-evolve. His poetic gestures continue to transform us and the interdependent relations in the Ekokathedraal.
Credit: Ideia e edição / Idea and editing: Beate Lendt Câmara / Camera: Hans de Ruiter, Beate Lendt Design de música e som / Music and sound design: Vladimir Rakic Legendas em inglês / English subtitles: Karlo Thornbury Agradecimentos especiais / With special thanks to: Johan van der Zee, Irene Curulli, Pieter Fenstra
Submitted by: Alastair Fuad-luke
Typology: Transforming Practice
Origin, Location and Movement?: Immigrant (arriving in a location from another; imported)
Item Relation: Assemblage of Things
State of abundance: Common
Date of creation: 1983-01-01

Socio-cultural Data

Present Uses

The Ekokathedraal is visited by locals and tourists as the site continues to evolve, as Le Roy intended, on its 1000 year journey of co-evolution.

in_situ uses

Louis Le Roy (1924—2012) was a maverick landscape architect who embarked upon a remarkable project in 1983, the Ekokathedraal near Mildam in the Netherlands. Conceived as a construction with a 1000-year timespan, Le Roy bought a farm field, requested that the local municipality deliver him inert building waste (bricks, concrete) from which he created hand-made structures without the use of mortar. Planting trees on the site, he saw that these structures, the flora and fauna would interact, co-develop and co-evolve. His poetic gestures continue to transform us and the interdependent relations in the Ekokathedraal.

Technical Data

Class of Material

Ceramics, Glasses

Bio-temporal-geographical Data

Residence time (How long does the matter/material/artefact stay in an unaltered state in the location/context/system before it decay?)

Centuries

How does the item affect the environment in which it exists?

Nourish it

Ontological-cosmological Data

admiration

How would you like to be with this artefact/material/living thing/matter?

Exploring it, sitting on it, watching the wildlife in and on it.

What can humans give back to this artefact/material/living thing/matter?

Pay attention to interactions within an assemblage of living and non-living components; thinking for the long-term; slow down our production and consumption systems.

# 0004

Ekokathedraal

Transforming Practice, Assemblage of Things, Common, Private Space, Ceramics, Glasses, Centuries