Sylt II

Sylt II has been designed as architectural answer to the "Sylt" situation. The best-known German holiday island in the North Sea is threatening to disappear. Its shores are continuously being eroded by the sea. The island is undergoing a process of change, which people are doing their best to counteract.

It had to be found a strategy to find a long-term solution for the constant destruction process of the island.

We have designed an island saving machine, a utopia, a new island, which was intended to replace the loss of the original.

 

THE SCENARIO TODAY

Sylt is a frequently visited island.
Sylt is battling against the sea.
Sylt is disappearing. Isn't it?

 

ORIGIN

Ten thousand years ago, the quaternary ice age came to an end. A global displacement of the climatic zones took place. At the time, the sea level was up to six meters lower than today. But, within the next few thousand years, the sea level rose again.

There was flooding, glaciers and polar caps melted and the temperature rose. The sea level rose quickly and at different rates in different places. The river valleys were covered by the sea and the hills remained as islands.
Today's coastline of North Frisia arose - consisting of the Pisa moraine island, the Amrum bank moraine island, Old Sylt, Old Amrum and many other islands which have now disappeared. The island of Sylt was deposited. 

 

THE SCENARIO

Sylt is eroding.

Sylt is breaking at its narrowest points.

Only the inhabited areas are protected.

 

THE DIRECTIVE

The metadirective of this design is to protect the existing substance of the island. The aim is to add one or more useful functions to the existing coast-protection scenario.

"Sylt II" is not an isolated phenomenon. All over the world, strategies are being developed in order to protect land or to artificially create new land (for example, in the Netherlands and Japan ).

 

THE PROJECT

We are building a new island.

We are building an artificial, autonomous machine which collects sand, money, energy and settlers.

The machine collects money in the casino, sand in the sand traps, energy in the photobiotic reactor and settlers in the lagoon city.

The machine collects sand and money in order to protect Sylt against the rich and the waves. Due to the tidal currents, the machine transforms itself in a rhythm of day and night, winter and summer, high-tide and low-tide.
The machine accepts all credit cards.

After the winter storms, the machine collects sand until the hopper dredgers pump the sand out in March in order to spread it on the beaches of Sylt.
The machine collects sand again until the main season in July. The sand is then pumped out again in October before the beginning of the winter storms and is sold to Sylt.

 

THE RHYTHM

It is morning. Some parts of the island are still submerged. The green of the golf course has been driven close to the island by the tide.

Afternoon. The island has surfaced completely. The tide has gone out, driving away the green.

It is night-time. Most of the island has submerged. The photobiotic laboratory lights up.

 

THE STORY

....He did not actually know exactly why he had travelled to Sylt 02. Everyone talked about the new island but no-one had been there. When he arrived, the sea had been unusually calm and the night clear. Even from a long way away, he could see the island lit up, with gentle flashes bouncing off the sea. The ferryman told him that this was the machine.

At night, the ferryman continued, the machine would light up and pump the sea full of air bubbles in order to gain energy. He was from the old island. The old island had once been much bigger although the machine broke the waves and thus protected large parts of the island. But the machine only protected the inhabited areas and collected the sand in order to spit it out again. Large parts of the island had sunk into the sea.

He felt strange. He had rented an apartment - near the beach because everything on the island was near the beach. This, at least, was what the corpulent lady at the travel office had assured him...
On the next day, he woke up in his apartment in the lagoon city. He took a water taxi to the casino - the only way of getting about on the island. At the information desk of the casino, he was told that there were four different levels on the island: the bathing suit, the Hawaii shirt, the tie and the dinner jacket. He decided in favour of the bathing suit because this was where the stakes were probably lowest. He gambled the whole morning...

Towards noon , it occurred to him that parts of the beach were wet and others not. Next to him, stood a blond woman who was having her bingo winnings transferred to her credit card. He used the opportunity to ask about the wet sand. Irritated, the woman looked at him until she realized that he was probably new to the island, and then answered him. The sand on the left, she said, was wet, the sand over there was drying and the sand right at the front was dry. But, on the island, people were saying that there were increasing problems with the drying mechanism recently, ever since the Chinese engineer died.

It was lucky for him, she continued, that he had come to the island during the main season; at this time, the machine had collected most of the sand. In answer to his question as to how the machine collected the sand, she replied laconically, "The machine submerges". She seemed to feel that the conversation had ended. She returned to the bingo game and left him standing there.
For that evening, a film had been announced. When darkness started to fall, the beaches closed and parts of the island sank in the sea. A machine drove along the promenade and stopped directly in front of the beach casino. He had already seen the little machine during the day: it had blown out wet sand onto the beach and had driven busily back and forth. It appeared to sort and clean the sand. Now, the machine transformed itself and a film was projected onto its back. The film was about a desert planet, on which the people collected water in huge grottos.

The next morning, he decided to try his luck on the second level, the Hawaii shirt. On the day before, he had already lost a lot of money. But he believed that, today, the rationality of things would dissolve and that he simply had to win. His belief remained unshaken, even when he lost at the automatic machines and the blackjack table. But he wanted to try another game: golf. He took a water taxi, drove to the northernmost end of the island. At the moment, the chances of winning were low but the possible winnings were very high. It was around 3 p.m. and the outgoing tide had just pulled out the green. During low tide, the distance between the green and the tee-off was so great that one rarely reached the green. During high tide, in contrast, the tidal current carried the green back to the shore.

He stood at the outmost end of the island and hit his first balls into the sea. He did not appear to have any luck there either. Nevertheless, he continued to play because, unless he was mistaken, the beautiful blond from the day before was playing a hole behind him. It might be that he intentionally took a long time. When he was standing at the tee-off of the 15th hole, a golf ball hit him on the head. Startled and slightly dazed, he was glad that the unknown beauty had hit him on the head with the ball and was hurrying towards him. She apologized several times and fussed about him, saying how sorry she was. But, the little sand sorting machine arrived at almost the same time as she did in order to provide first aid. The machine soothed the pains of the poor man and then went on sorting sand.
They talked for a long time and then decided to go into the vitamin bar to drink a cocktail of the green algae, Chlorella. In the evening, they stood silently before the background of lights of the photobiotic reactor and enjoyed the play of light. At the same time, the beach sank into the sea.