‘Wildernis Invites’ is a collaborative initiative led by Belgian and Berlin-based members of Constructlab, in partnership with the local association Wildebras.

Together with children, neighbors, and an engaged network of creatives, we aim to establish a sustainable and long-term use of Wildernis – island in the heart of Kortrijk, Belgium, where Wildebras currently operates an adventure playground for kids. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the project fosters wild play, hands-on learning, and an open process of co-creation, bringing together children, teenagers, and adults in an ever-evolving space of exploration and community building.

From March to May, our team focused on building a new space for the local association. At the same time, we invited members of the Constructlab network to join us in activating the space – bringing fresh ideas centered around play, creativity, and togetherness.

The building is designed in a fully circular way and will be built in a participatory way together with the local Wildebras community. The wooden beam construction was recovered from the German pavilion at the Floriade in Almere at the end of 2022. The building will be given a red-orange colour with natural and biodegradable paint, an idea that was generated from Moulin a couleur and Critical Concrete. The foundation was done by simple screw-poles that will have minimal impact on the soil. With its open construction, the building will offer multifunctional spaces that will serve as storage, workshop space, materials and tools distribution for the children, a temporary bar, a covered terrace, an outdoor exhibition for Wildernis’ creations and much more. 

With a shared vision of creating spaces that encourage wild play and networks of care and co-existence, a strong foundation was already in place for what would become the Cut and Paint community – one of the first steps in the Wildernis Invites project. This initiative wasn’t just the beginning of something new; it was also deeply rewarding and gave us the energy to keep moving forward with the project.

What made it even more meaningful was the way it brought people together. Locals came with enthusiasm, contributing their time, effort, and creativity. The documentation of this process became an important part of the project itself—capturing the care, connection, and collective spirit that shaped it from the very start.

Therefore, one of the first steps was to establish a network of people through local initiatives (like LZSB and Wildebras) who would actively participate in this process and gain a deeper understanding of what was about to take place in their city, becoming engaged members of this transformation.

“ When we announced the “Cut & Paint” initiative on social media, curiosity quickly followed. People began asking questions, eager to understand the project and how they could participate. In a small city like Kortrijk, word travels fast – whether through online platforms or simple encounters on the street.

As a result, a diverse group of people got involved. Among them were members of Compagnie Cordial, an organization dedicated to helping newcomers integrate by connecting them with locals, providing opportunities to practice the language, and working on collaborative projects. Every day, individuals like Ahmed, Yossef, Navel, and Nizar joined in, bringing their energy and dedication to the site.

Teachers like Liese, Inge, and Vincent regularly use the space with their students throughout the school year, making it a natural extension of their classroom. During “Cut & Paint,” they eagerly joined in, helping to paint what would soon become their own outdoor school.

Some of the children who first set foot in Wildernis back in 2015 have since grown into teenagers. Now, they return not just to enjoy the space but to shape it for the next generation. Tuur, Amiel, and Suzanne, for instance, dedicated themselves to sanding—working almost nonstop for an entire week.

The project also drew support from beyond Kortrijk. Toestand, an organization based in Brussels [that focuses on activating and connecting neighborhoods], made a surprise visit. Despite the 100-kilometer distance, they arrived with ten young volunteers, lending a helping hand for an afternoon and reinforcing the sense of community.

And of course, there are even more supporters – the people who show up every time, ready to help, no matter the task. Among them are Jolan, Lisa, Jana and many others, whose ongoing commitment keeps Wildernis growing and thriving.”

– Simon (member of LZSB and Wildebras)

Thanks to this communication the ‘Cut & Paint’ week was about to start. We organized a daily biking group that departed every morning at 9:00 AM from the center of Kortrijk to the warehouse in Wevelgem – a 30-minute ride along the Leie – making sure that everyone could reach the site easily.

To organize the volunteers and make the Cut and Paint week as efficient as possible, we created several task groups, allowing people to move between them and engage in whichever activity interested them most.

Some people were categorizing the wood, others were sanding or painting it and at the same time a new proportion of paint was produced in a big pot every hour while Juul & Emma were cooking meals for lunch breaks. At the last day of the week people came by to help us cut the wood like Victor and Pjotr, as well as transferring the newly painted beams outside to dry.

In this context the ‘Cut and Paint’ week was a rewarding experience not only for the evolution of the project but also for the people who participated in it as well.

We believe that letting everyone engage in the activity that seemed more interesting or fun to them fostered a deeper sense of involvement. By using their hands and bodies to contribute, the participants were able to actively recognize their importance as key contributors to the project. In many ways, they were the heart of this initiative. <3

The three old and already existing buildings on the island are in very poor condition. Water infiltration in several places has irreparably damaged the structural elements of the buildings and the electricity is no longer compliant. The sewage system discharges into the pond and fire safety is not ensured.

For these reasons, we decided to replace the old buildings and combine them into one logical building that eases the operation of our youth organization as it will offer multifunctional spaces that will serve as storage, workshop space, materials and tools distribution for the children, a temporary bar, a covered terrace, an outdoor exhibition for Wildernis’ creations and much more.

The building is a gateway building to the wilderness/the island. It acts as an additional boundary between the space that is accessible to everyone and the island that is intended only for children and the supervisors of the youth work. In this way, the central gate of the building is aligned with the gate on the bridge to make vehicle loading and unloading easy, as people often do workshops where a lot of material must be transported by trailer.

The new building is centrally planted amid the existing pavement which is used as the floor in the building. This way no floor slab has to be made and the circular structure can be completely disassembled for reuse. 

The structure is a click system of red painted lamellar wood on a pile foundation of steel screw piles. The wooden beam construction was recovered from the German pavilion at the Floriade in Almere at the end of 2022 and the red-orange colour that will be given will be created with natural and biodegradable paint, an idea that was generated from Moulin a couleur and Critical Concrete.

The structure is completed with corrugated iron sheets, wooden slat structures and wooden planks, according to the needs behind it – materials that we are planning to reuse from the existing structures when they will be dismantled. The roof will be finished with corrugated iron sheets. Due to the small scale of the building elements to be installed, all of this can be done with light machinery. Thus, even the foundations can be placed with a handheld machine. This type of foundation has minimal impact on the environment and is reversible and it is also recommended by arborists in this situation.

In general, we wanted the building to fit well into the existing character of the neighbourhood, but at the same time, when one is on the island, one should be able to perceive its character and purpose. Therefore, the design is a light structure made mainly of wood and the red color of the paint is also present in the surrounding houses with red brick and roofing. Since the island is also lower than the street, the height does not have an impact. The corrugated metal is partially recovered from the old buildings and is therefore a nod to the past.

The first two weeks of the project, we mainly focused on transferring the wood from the storage area to the island of Wildernis and organizing the construction site. We also started assembling the metal feet for the screw-pole structure that forms the base of the pavilion, and after that, we created stations to prepare for the placement of the columns and beams.

During this time we spent a lot of time on site trying to finish the protostructure of the building. The goal was to place all the columns and the beams and later on to start placing the wooden floor plates on top. To connect the beams with the columns we used T – locks and simplex wood connectors. We had a lot of wood to prepare during this process but we were very grateful to have all the help we could get from the people on site during these days.

After spending two weeks on site, the atmosphere and character of the space had completely transformed – as you can also see from the photo archive. Progress was becoming visible, and suddenly, we began to truly understand what was about to unfold in the space.

The roof design of the building features two butterfly roofs, each constructed from a structural grid of laminated timber beams. These two roofs differ in scale and elevation, creating an interplay of heights and volumes that channel rainwater towards a central metal gutter. This integrated gutter system efficiently collects rainwater for potential use.

The two custom metal gutters were manoeuvred carefully in place with a crane like the final pieces of a puzzle. Once installed, we were eager to test the system in action. Using water to simulate rainfall, we carefully observed how it moved across the butterfly roof’s sloping planes. The outcome was exactly as intended: the water flowed smoothly and efficiently into the gutters, creating two waterfalls and confirming the design’s effectiveness in managing rainwater! 

The roof was finalized with corrugated iron sheets, which provide a durable, weather-resistant outer skin and easily reparable. 

For the roof construction, we invited Victor and Tom to collaborate, combining their knowledge in carpentry. As the build progressed, especially during the Culture Move phase, the work on the roof continued—and it became a collective effort. Many hands contributed to the construction during this time, helping to assemble the structure piece by piece.

With the roof completed, we felt a true sense of progress and satisfaction, it not only protects and preserves the rest of the building, but also brings a feeling of completeness to the space.

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| |Listen here to the relief when the gutter was installed!

With the island envisioned as a space for cohabitation and one of the key pillars of our design rooted in informal and unconventional learning, we were eager to invite people to spend time on the island.

By doing so, we aimed to transform the island into a dynamic ground for research, experimentation, and the exchange of knowledge – bringing together individuals with shared interests in the concept of play, creative exploration, and hands-on building with materials.

This collaborative environment fosters creativity, dialogue, and a deeper understanding of how space, play, and material engagement can intersect in meaningful ways.

This became possible through the program Culture Moves Europe and 20 people from different countries like France, Germany, Portugal and Sweden were invited to support us to activate the space for three weeks between the 28th of April and 18th of May. 

Before people arrived and while we were still working on the roof construction of the building, we were keen on transforming the space of the island which was mainly for construction into a welcoming space for people to work and be creative. 

Through small interventions to the space inside and outside as well, we wanted to make the space feel inclusive, cared for and welcoming and at the same time encourage interaction with the local people of the neighbourhood as well. 

Creating a welcoming space turned out not to be defined steps we knew to follow. More so, it evolved in taking collective and individual decisions, making small yet meaningful interventions. Some are apparent, like installing a toilet, others are more subtle, like hammering 15 nails to hang your jackets. Always it required empathy and imagination to already grasp the situation of 20+ people being in the place, always in meaningful support of the many people in Kortrijk such as Simon, Eleonore, Jolan, Lisa, Pjotr, Ruth, Stan and Katleen.

The small and bigger changes on the island included:

• creating a kitchen + bar in the already existing building and filling it with ingredients
• installing a compost toilet at the entrance of the island – lended by Stan and Katleen who sustain the meaningful heerlijkheid van heule
• collecting bikes from different people in Kortrijk to make moving between the different sites more accessible.
• creating an accessible tool station in the existing garage
• continuous work on the Display at the entrance of the island: It evolved from a bare wooden structure to an actual display holding information about the project, inviting people from the neighbourhood.
• preparing a blackboard: It would later on during Culture Move play a vital role in organisation and communication.
• preparing the Campsite at Bolwerk: Ruben and Servaas welcomingly offered their space for the people from Culture Move to camp there. The scouts provided big tents and many helping hands brought mattresses, blankets, pillows, lights and we also assembled two outdoor showers.
• creating a WhatsApp group with the community of Kortrijk to inform them about activities, but also to ask for support
• writing a Welcoming Dossier: To create a welcoming space can go beyond physical interventions. So we created a dossier for people to read before they come and Juul made a map of Kortrijk.

And then after a long time of preparation and anticipation, the weeks of culture move finally began! Within little more than 24 hours our group grew a lot and a table that used to serve less than 10 people needed to host more than 20. In a collective effort in the morning of the first day after having a round of introduction we built a long table out of leftover materials in the entrance of the island. This moment marked the beginning of something and confirmed that everyone was a crucial part of it.

This table would become the place where we shared most of our meals, bringing us together within the days of diverse activities. It would become the place where – in the last rays of sunlight – we closed the days with a cold drink.  Situated on the bridge from the street to the island it also atmospherically functioned as a bridge, connecting both worlds, inviting one into the other. This became especially perceptible during Wednesday and Sunday afternoons – the times when we actively invited the neighbourhood and anyone interested to join workshops, have a drink and share a moment. It became a place that showed our presence to anyone passing by. It became a place to gather around. A place that allows one to stop in one’s walk and stay for a moment. A place for encounters and many little stories written.

Side note: the table and all of its stories will at some point become part of the pavilion’s facade.

The first week was a week of arriving, of inhabiting this table and the whole island. It was filled with exploration of the playground, exploration of all the corners in the tool station, finding spots to meet as a group, preparing surfaces to work on, gathering ideas and intentions for the group projects, getting to know each other and finding one’s place of refuge.

We would start our days around 9, have a working session and then come together for lunch which was prepared by some of us each day, then continue working on projects, care for the space, care for ingredients, … clean the island around 5, and make a plan for the evening. All flavoured by various side projects, moments of togetherness, people of the neighbourhood stopping by, and witnessing baby birds leaving their nests.

Wednesday and Sunday afternoons we opened the island’s playground for children and actively invited people from the neighbourhood and anyone interested to join our workshops and the bar + waffle making in the evening, to explore the island and get in touch with the people working there. The workshops initiated by different people each time had a very open format, allowing you to join and leave anytime, allowing you to explore and play with different materials and processes. The first one on Wednesday the 30/04 was very exciting for us. Ariane, Arthur, Alex, Álvaro and Mathilde invited children to draw their ideas for a new entrance of the Wildernis. Mariana, Diogo, Gonçalo, Patrick and Sophie explored with the children and anyone interested the world of sounds, inventing instruments and leaving us in awe by the complexity of the sounds around us. Arthur activated a screen printing station, printing countless shirts (and other items!). In the evening our bar invited people to share a moment and explore the site.

On Thursday 01/05 20 students of ENSA Toulouse arrived. They contributed to the construction tremendously by putting back the bricks on the ground floor that were removed before to set the foundations of the pavilion. But also they engaged with other projects such as the Display or the Kabaal Orkest, cooking  and screenprinting with Arthur! On Friday evening we were welcomed at Textielhuis and could discover the Ateliers and the concept of the place. The students left again on Saturday. Once again: a big thank you to each one of them!

On Saturday we had a gathering in the forest of the island. Emma, Nicolas, Gonçalo and Diogo prepared some presentations about their personal work which is connected to play. Following these presentations we would explore together what we understand by play, how we interact with play through our work, and where we find playfulness ourselves. This shared exploration of ideas created a broader context for our project, added another layer to it.

We started the second week with a collective day off, taking a breath, exploring the sourroundings or doing some calls. On Tuesday we had a Barbecue happening at Bolwerk together with Ruben and Servaas! We cannot emphasize enough what a welcoming, mystical and inspiring place they are creating at Bolwerk.

On our open days we again opened the island’s playground for children and welcomed many people at the entrance of the island. We decided to choose that space to make it more visible and accesible for people to stop by; and also because of the still ongoing roof construction of the pavilion which might have been a source of danger. This space was of special interest for younger children who could not play on the island’s playground yet. A lively atmosphere of exploration and experimentation unfolded. Some screen printed with clay, ▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| | Listen here! some joined Elpída’s Cyanotype workshop, some created clay sculptures  ▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| Listen here! , others would saw countless sticks at the takkenfabrik, cook in the mudkitchen, bake waffles on the fire  ▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| Listen here! or discover the endless possibilities to make sounds in the Kabaal Orkest. A special trace from these days were the stenciled chalk-marks on the pavement that now lead to the Wildernis from quite afar. We especially would like to thank Elise who reached out to us and came to support with an incredibly kind and patient attitude.

Elpída tells about the cyanotype workshop: “On Sunday afternoon around 15h, we set up the cyanotype workshop for the kids, under the structure of the new building, by putting some OSB surfaces on top of leftover wood surfaces – like the ones we put on the roof of the building a few weeks ago. Apart from the necessary components for the cyanotype mix, we placed on our workbench a large piece of fabric, scissors, a bucket of water for rinsing the fabric and a basket of materials we found on the island or in the tool shed such as screws, chains, a saw and screwdriver, some leaves, flowers and stones.
At first the children observed the preparation of the bench from afar. Then when we started experimenting with the materials to see the result before letting them try, the children started approaching us – some on their own and others with their parents – patiently watching with curiosity or asking how the process worked. Then it all came very naturally. Parents and children began experimenting by cutting different sizes of fabric, placing different objects each time and eagerly awaiting the final result after exposing the fabric to sunlight.
The results were beautiful and we even made a little flag with the word “Wildernis” from the materials we had on our bench, even using some branches to form the letters.
This flag was later placed at the entrance to the island, where the wooden structure for neighbourhood information – the Display – is located, that is, next to the street, and in this way it was another intervention to mark the entrance to the site and indicate its activation while we were there.

Of course this workshop would not have been possible without the help of Simon, who provided us with all the necessary materials for cyanotype, as he had been thinking of running this workshop with the children for some time! So thank you so much to him for that and for trusting us to use them to create with the children on the island!”

Friday 09/05 was the day of the Kabaal Orkest Parade! In the early afternoon a school class joined us on the island and together we would make masks out of cardboard and old newspapers provided by the local library. By hammering leaves’ chlorophyll onto a fabric and drawing on them we created flags. And then we kicked off our parade to the school!

Finally our parade arrived in the school’s yard and other children who had just finished their classes joined the spectacle. A playful, lively atmosphere and a broad spectrum of sounds created with the Kabaal Orkest filled the whole school yard.

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| | Listen here for an auditive insight into the parade!

On Saturday 10/05 more members of the Constructlab Network joined us on the island for an annual moment of togetherness. In the morning we again gathered in the forest listening to genuinely inspiring stories of Nomad City. We shared a colourful lunch and in the afternoon we collectively worked on the website and learned more about the HOW (Hospitality on wheels) project. It was a precious moment to reconnect in person and to once again revive the spirit of Constructlab. (aaaand the Website got worked on!)

On Saturday and Sunday we already had to say goodbye to Mariana, Diogo, Gonçalo, Patrick and Sophie who left to Portugal and Austria; and Álvaro, Arthur, Ariane, Alex and Mathilde who left to France. On this note we want to open up a space for their projects that will keep on enriching the island long after their departure:

Mariana, Diogo, Gonçalo, Patrick and Sophie arrived with the intention to explore sounds and how we can play with it. They wanted to leave something behind that would support children and anyone to dive into this sense and discover new perspectives. They took the first open day as a chance to engage with the children, playing with all sorts of sounds. Together they would create instruments and send us to journeys of sounds. With our eyes closed a new sense got sharpened and the complexity of sounds would create images without the need of vision.

This theme – hearing without seeing as well as the playful exploration of creating sounds with any kind of object would become central in the design process. The workshop’s name: Kabaal Orkest (dutch for “noise orchestra”) would become the name of the machine that would evolve over the next weeks.

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| | Listen here to the sounds of the Kabaal Orkest!

Patrick describes: “The Kabaal Orkest machine is a movable playground to explore sound. Everyone is a bit noisy—and the Kabaal Orkest machine offers the capacity and access to explore and produce sound freely. It invites children to manipulate, discover, and create sonic experiences using hacked electronic toys, analog mechanisms, and resonant surfaces. The machine encourages listening as a way of seeing—creating new images by hearing, not looking. It’s an invitation to make the unrecognisable recognisable, to fnd fascination in the mundane and everyday, and to blur the lines between sound and
music. The machine has an outside and an inside. Sound travels in both directions: from the inside out, and the outside in. Children communicate through sound, perceive through sound, and play through sound.”

Arthur, Álvaro, Ariane, Alex and Mathilde came with the intention to create a gate for the new pavilion. Soon it became clear though that the pavilion was not ready for a gate yet. This asked for reorientation which in the end allowed to explore the concept of entrance in a much broader sense – and in more playful way as the expectation of the project’s outcome became more open.

How to enter the island? How to mark the entrance? How to show the difference between city and forest, adult’s world and kid’s world? The first week was characterized by experimentation with entrance types and materiality. The approach was to explore how to create with what could already be found on site and to condition the design accordingly, experimenting with scrap wood and the aesthetic it could produce.

Mathilde remembers: “Through the cooperation between different participants the understanding of the Wildernis project in its functioning and ethical values deepened. This was achieved slowly, through trial and error and incrementally blending in the community both in Wildernis island and other locations of the local associative network. As we got to know each other’s positions and limits, the proposals, tests and actions we developed became more pertinent”.

During the first open day Arthur, Álvaro, Ariane, Alex and Mathilde invited children to draw entrances to their place. Further they explored the idea to indicated by design that parents were not allowed on the island by reducing the size of the passage through a wooden construction on the existing steel gate of the island. The entrance was also explored as a wider topic: How to invite people from the neighbourhood to the island? Following this train of thoughts they went to the neighbourhood to invite and they cut out stencils in order to spraypaint with chalk paint on the pavement.  “kids headquarter”, “island playground”,… and multiple arrows would lead to the island from afar. Even though they did not speak the same language the children happily participated in this spraypainting activity.

The whole research process permitted them to restore the historic forged steel gate, paint it blue and to build a wooden appendix to the brick arch. This appendix has a sign spelling Wildernis and is visible from further away. Through the creative usage of leftover material it quotes the island’s playground also aesthetically.

On Monday morning those who stayed a third week – Nicolas, Linnea, Andries, Yann, Dani, Nora, Emma, Jan, Elpída, Franka, Lucas and Juul gathered to share how we felt about the coming days, our intentions and expectations. Many of us had left and the change of dynamics could be felt by everyone remaining. The big tents were now half empty, the long table had less and less plates on it, fewer bodies were moving around the site. There was sadness that so many left but also the more intimate, less hectic setting allowed different kinds of encounters, different conversations, different ways of working. For some this third week would become a week where they truly found focus and space to explore their ideas.

On our two final Open Days we explored sounds with the Kabaal Orkest, sawed at the takkenfabriek, baked waffles again (this has almost become a tradition by now). Jan invited to make masks from paper and cardboard. Emma put some special focus on the Display and encouraged to build a little clubhouse attached to it.

First colourful posters about Wildernis were glued to it, providing informations. Then parts of it were painted with a blackboard paint, transforming it into a canvas on which we would announce upcoming events. Elpída created a little structure containig flyers for everyone to take. On the first days we would with excitement count how many flyers were taken each day! Emma added a little letterbox receiving ideas for Wildernis. Later on we built a bench attached to the Display that grows further into space, inviting to take a seat but just as much to use it as a kitchen, shelter or bridge. On the last two open days Emma hosted a workshop for children to built a little clubhouse attached to the Display. Some teenagers who used to play in Wildernis when they were younger did a great job to keep the structure stable. Franka and some children planted a willow branch together, curious if it will be able to grow roots. Franka and Emma installed a flagpost with the flag of Wildernis that Elpída had created with the technique of Cyanotype together with the children one week prior.

The Display played and still plays a crucial role in bridging between the Wildernis world and the outside world – similarily to the table. The Display performs the qualities of a welcoming space mentioned earlier in the blog: it is giving – giving space to sit, to play; it is readable – containing information about the project and events; it is malleable – open to be transformed further on.

In this third week of Culture Move we also managed to finalize the roof, what marked a big step for the pavilion. More on the construction, the process and the design behind it you can find further above in this blog!

On Saturday we had our collective clean-up day. While we were already finishing and cleaning things up the whole week and would continue doing so after Culture Move, the collective efforts of Saturday would make a huge change in the appearance of the site. Even though cleaning up normally doesn’t sound fun, it actually was. It was impressive how quickly many hands can transform something. And we ate really well. Special thanks goes to Andries who would bake fresh bread twice that day. In the evening we shared a little celebratory moment at Lucas’ and Juul’s house and on Sunday we said goodbye to the very last people who had enriched Culture Move with their presence. We want to take this as a chance to tell about the works of those who have stayed a third week – Dani, Yann, Andries, Nora, Linnea and Nicolas:

They came with different ideas, different experiences, partly different materials they wanted to work with but they all came with an intention to explore, to experiment, to play. And to do it together. Each one of them genuinely invited everybody interested to work on their projects to experiment together and to see where it goes.

Exploration and experimentation might encourage to deconstruct some of your own habits of working, leaving you to try new processes and take different perspectives. While during the first two weeks – when Wildernis was buzzing like a beehive – a defined project can be an anchor and not having that might make you feel a little lost, it seems as in the third week – when dust started settling – this inspiring openness of experimentation and exploration became truly truly fruitful. It allowed spontaenity to react and act on one’s sourroundings, to what was happening in space, to what others were doing. This is not to say though that this kind of playfulness did not happen in the first to weeks – oh there was a lot of it happening! – but in the third week it would maybe emerge more clearly, more strongly from the previous buzz.

For example: Dani – in a collective effort – built an oven that would become a center for everyone and played an important role in cooking and crêpe making. ▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| | Listen here! Victor and Tom had brought the tradition of spoon making and the small leftover wooden chunks from that would become a useful material to start the fire. Also we would use the spoons and other tools for cooking. (Especially the crêpe making tools turned out very valuable.) Sitting next to those sculpting spoons, Juul repaired the wind chimes. Yann with Dani’s support built a kiln to burn his clay sculptures. Nicolas digged for soil and sieved it together with Linnea creating the base for some brick making experiments of Dani, Nora and Nicolas. Also the clay was used for Nora’s clay cooking. Thereby Nora initiated the baking on the fire which Andries would take over to bake countless waffles and even some bread on the stick together with the children. The takkenfabriek constructed by Linnea and Nicolas was a very helpful tool to work on the Display’s clubhouse that Emma had initiated. Dani gave an introduction about solar panels and later on created a solar system to have a functioning light chain in the entrance that Alex, Mathilde, Ariane, Álvaro and Arthur had built. Elpída had done a Cyanotype workshop with children and Franka had started a little recipe collection. Linnea and Nora took those two impulses and created an amazing cookbook with cyanotype prints. Jan had initiated a mask making workshop and Yann took this idea further to use clay for making models for the mask making. …This is just to illustrate the rich connections that were woven between different people’s projects. It is certainely not complete but tries to emphasize that all those seperate projects (that we will look into more closely in the following part of the blog) are truly pieces of a collective endeavour and more than the sum of its parts.

Now we want to go a bit more into depth of different projects: Nicolas and Linnea from Växtvärket focused on the practical aspects of the workshop space, which the children are using for building on Wildebras’ site. They started their residency with a period of observation: How do the children interact with the adventure playground? How do they normally build? Some informal conversations with different members of Wilderbras also helped to better understand how the children are using the site, which tools are most often used, and how they are used. Together they developed the general idea for what they were about to build. Another important factor were the materials they found on site such as willow and hazel branches, old bike tires, leftover wood, fabric, fences and the locally available clay. Through a process of drawing, building, testing, observation, learning and adjusting they produced a series of four small prototypes for the potential future workshop of Wildebras. Linnea and Nicolas explain:

• “The Takkenfabriek: The stick factory is an installation that helps young children to safely saw and drill their own wood pieces. The installation is built from reclaimed materials from the construction site and allows 3-4 children to play at the same time without blocking each other. The installation is lightweight and can easily move around the playground, which makes it very versatile. The kids visiting the playground during the residency period were testing it vigorously and allowed a continuous development during the last two weeks. The prototype includes even a special clamp that allows the users to drill their wood pieces more safely. The prototype helps young people explore natural materials and even develop their stick-lego system by combining the cut-offs with drilled holes and other sticks as connectors.

• A mobile handheld loom for weaving with natural and recycled materials. The loom is built from cut-offs and is assembled in such a way that the materials are interchangeable. Testing was done with natural fibers such as nettles and leek (outer foliage, a foodwaste), and with recycled materials such as cycletubing or plastic fencing. The loom is simple to assemble and intuitive in usage, and was tested with some children during the second week.
• A modular exhibition system. Built from cutoffs and rubber tires, the prototype allows the children to collect and showcase their unique findings or productions on the
playground by giving them the tool to hang small exhibition shelves onto different trees or other vertical structures. The pieces can be hung up at the children’s height and make the playground into a collection system and a museum at the same time.

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| | Listen here to Linnea describing it!

• Sieves to sieve the different soils of the island. These prototypes are made from wooden frames and different ‘net’ materials found on the island that allow the children to sieve sand and soil and discover different sizes and elements in the soil. It also allows them to work with the local clay, by using the sieves to separate different materials from the soil to create purer clay to then work on with. They were tested especially by the youngest children to play in the ‘dirt kitchen’”.

The project focused on working with clay as a local resource. On the one hand the material was sourced on-site – by digging directly on the island. Nicolas also engaged a lot in that and helped together with Linnea to prepare the clay. On the other hand it was provided through a collaboration with Brickworks Vande Moortel, a nearby brick factory. Yann tells: “We explored clay through various activities and experiments, uncovering its many functions and properties. Our first focus was on its use as a building material. We excavated loam from the site and experimented with it in different applications, such as brick-making and mortar for an oven built with re-used bricks. The clay commonly used in local construction differs from loam—it hardens at high temperatures, becoming water-resistant, which makes it ideal for this climate. Fortunately, we were able to obtain brick-clay from a local factory [Brickworks Vande Moortel] and experimented with it, adding sand to improve its plasticity and using it to create different shapes and sculptures. Without access to a professional kiln, we attempted a firing technique similar to pit-firing, replacing traditional firewood with barbecue coal.

The firing process led us to explore cooking with clay. The long-lasting heat—lasting four to five hours—provided an opportunity to experiment with different cooking techniques. We cooked food directly on the fire and also wrapped ingredients in clay before placing them in the flames. [Nora prepared amazing smokey onions by clay cooking à l’etoufée]. Both methods required further research, as the firing clay emitted gases, and controlling temperature and duration proved difficult.

The discussions often revolved around clay’s deep connection to storytelling. As a material that ‘remembers’, clay was one of the earliest surfaces used for writing in ancient Mesopotamia. Inspired by this idea, we used it for drawing and printing, screen-printing postcards,” and combining it with cyanotyping techniques.

Dani remembers: “Life on the island played a vital role in shaping the project. Social and creative processes were deeply intertwined – connecting clay research with activities such as cooking with children, co-hosting dinners, and engaging in shared fire-based practices like baking waffles”.

Reflecting on their experience, Yann also notes that the preparation was challenging since none of the group had visited the site beforehand. “We had to adjust our expectations and take a more flexible approach. Once there, the possibilities and limitations became clear, allowing us to adapt quickly. However, coordinating activities proved difficult due to the labor-intensive nature of working with clay. The compact spatial setting helped, as we could easily observe and join each other’s activities, fostering spontaneous collaboration. The interactions with children were particularly heartwarming, although structured workshops were difficult due to the free-play concept and language barriers”.

During these three weeks we ate really well. So well that sometimes we really craved some fries… Noone came with the project to cook but in the end the nourishing aspect of the Culture Move residency was immensely important. This is why we also want to give it some attention in this blog. From gathering the ingredients from farmers, shops or even Bolwerk’s roof (nettle) to storing them well so they wouldn’t go bad, to transforming them into deliciousness through different processes, to eat them together at one table, to store leftovers for the next meal and to doing the dishes – preparing and sharing food is a complex weaving of connections between people on the table and beyond, between people and places, cultures and ecosystems.

Nourishing is embedded in a deep sense of care for oneself and others. It is always a gift to cook something for someone and a gift to cherish the meal cooked for one. It nourishes our bodies and also let us not forget all the stories told while cooking, the silence just as much as the laughter shared while eating and the responsibility performed while doing the dishes.

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| | Listen here to Andries making elderflower syrop!

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| | Listen here to Nicolas preparing Rösti!

▶︎ •၊၊||၊|။|||| | Listen here to Emma and Linnea preparing lunch!

As so many people were involved in cooking, putting their heart and knowledge into it our taste buds got in touch with a variety of amazing dishes. Linnea and Nora took the initiative, brought in the creativity, skills and the endurance to create cookbooks with everyone’s recipes. Those cookbooks are true treasures! More so because Linnea and Nora, inspired by Elpìda’s Cyanotype workshop and Nora’s screenprinting with clay, skillfully created covers for those cookbooks. In the end every participant would be gifted with such a culinary timecapsule, each with an original cover. These books now standing in different shelves in different people’s homes will remind us of this time shared in Kortrijk.

And then after the third week even the last of the people who had joined us for Culture Moves spread again all over Europe. Those organizing the Culture Move residency were tired but fulfilled. The following days we sorted tools, brought back blankets and glass bottles, washed bed sheets, used up and distributed leftover ingredients. And also said goodbye to one another. It was a strange feeling to wander through the quiet island now, remembering all the little stories that had unfolded on these grounds. And in such a moment we could feel again a flush of appreciation for each one of the people and beyond-human beings that had enriched this place through their being and doing. A flush of appreciation for all the threads that have been woven between one another.

Image Credits:
Arthur Bed, Nora Duprat, Mariana Sardon, Diogo Monteiro, Elpída Gkógka, Simon Verschelde, Franka Fuchs, Daniel Parnitzke