When I first visited Zeeasterweg landfill in Lelystad, what caught my attention was the new ecologies that appeared on parts of this very human made landscape.
Right next to the compartments, which are currently being landfilled, is a storage area for multiple kinds of soil. Those various piles stay there for days, months or possibly years before they usually get sold again. And for a certain period of time, as long as humans do not intervene with these soils, a seemingly random biotope develops there, with various plants and surprisingly diverse.

Where do these soils come from? What kinds of plants are able to adapt to such a barren environment that quickly? How do these plants distribute? What kind of rhythm and pattern can I identify?
These research questions led me to the pioneer plants. A hardy, resilient species that is the first to colonize barren land and develops an interesting biodiversity within a short time. We call them weeds and we usually try to get rid of them, but many of those plants even have beneficial reasons.

My design is not about planning a biodiverse future once the landfill is done, but about highlighting the biodiversity that the pioneer plants create on those stored piles of soil right now. 

The intervention that I called The tea house hosts an exhibition of various types of soil, piled up in a human scale and providing a habitat for a variety of pioneer plants.
On the basis of this blank canvas, the focus is directed to the piles of earth. Independent from what happens outside the walls, the rhythm of those plants can be studied, a beautiful result of the random interaction of wind and earth.

The tea house provides a neutral base and focuses on the pioneer plants. This is completely independent of what happens around it. Whether it exists for a few months, years or decades… The tea house can always be the canvas for the beautiful rhythm and pattern of biodiversity.