Firedune

status: construction in 2021 client: Strandlab / RAUM location: Leidsche Rijn / Almere (NL) year: 2019

The Fire Dune is an artificial dune, inhabited by four independent, unique variations on a fireplace, currently being developed for a public space in Leidsche Rijn and for a beach in Almere. Each fire place has a different orientation, offering protection from the wind throughout the year, and each proposes different uses, from the intimate beach barbecue, to the collective festival. The Fire portal is a wide mountain shaped wall, a section of the dune. A conical niche opens to either small groups, to find shelter and light a fire during a rainy day, or to a wider public, gathered in front of it, as the fire lights up the triangle, as a sign visible from afar. The Fire theatre is a subtly curved retaining wall, where the flickering flames light the scene for night time performances. The Volcano is the tip of the dune, visible from every direction, sending smoke signals to other camp fires. The Stove is a triangular open air room, with an oven and storage for dry wood, in which every visitor can collect and store fire wood, while leaving some for the next guest. Collectively, they lighten up the dune, which becomes a sort of geological Russian stove, warming and drying the sand through the collective effort of the fireplaces.