The Sea, the Beach, and the Harbor

---

Period: 29 May 2004 – 31 March 2005
Location: Various locations around the Scheveningen harbor

The North Sea is full of stories. Not only old tales of naval battles, brave fishermen, pirates, and beachcombers. The North Sea also tells contemporary stories. Together, they feed the imagination of a 'North Sea culture'. Is that a vital force for the future of The Hague? In 2004, Stroom Den Haag organized ‘The Sea, the Beach, the Harbor’, a manifestation at the intersection of art and science that explored the sea as public space. This exploration – indeed, it is a journey – began at the hotspots of The Hague, Scheveningen, and the surrounding area: a sea road, a fishing village, a boulevard, a pier, bunkers. They tell local stories of The Hague but are all entwined in a global narrative. The Hague’s sea is the North Sea, and therefore a world sea.

As part of ‘The Sea, the Beach, the Harbor’, various activities were organized.
In addition to projects by visual artists such as Krijn Giezen, Annelies Dijkman, Denis Oudendijk, Jan Körbes, Esther Polak, and others, workshops and a symposium took place on Mobile Urban Planning under the title ‘In the Meantime’. Work was also done on the ‘Enseaclopaedia’, an alphabetically ordered vocabulary of ‘North Sea culture’ (published online only).

As part of this manifestation:

Excursions

Sea Travel III – Journey of Disaster and Rescue – 11 September, 2004
The final Stroom Sea Travel in the series was intended as a memorable boat trip across a threatening North Sea – a sea that can sometimes turn into a disaster zone. Many ships met their fate off the Dutch coast, and even today, rescue boats and salvage ships sail out daily. This stretch of coast has also witnessed flood disasters; the years 1421 and 1953 are engraved in memory. This Sea Travel offered a full day of sailing on salt, fresh, and virtual water in and around The Hague, ending with an “honest fish dish”.

Sea Travel II – Landhead Sea – 3 July, 2004
The Hague artist and architect Jan Körbes led an expedition through the 100-year-old Scheveningen harbor. Landhead C in the Scheveningen Outer Harbor symbolizes the major transformations of the harbor. Starting from the Canteen of the Fish Auction, participants were transported by boat to Hellingweg, temporarily named “Landhead Sea”. This dead-end road provided a panoramic view of the past, present, and future of the harbor. Locals and users shared stories about this unique space between city and sea. Participants encountered a floating hotel, an international community of truck drivers, a trade in antique building materials, a vegan squat café, a studio warehouse, a surfboard inventor, and an architecture firm.

Additional program elements on 3 July, 2004, in and around Scheveningen Harbor:

• ‘Architecture in the Harbor’, presentation at the architecture firm Geurst & Schulze, Kranenburgweg 136, Scheveningen

• Continuous screenings of various films about the harbor in the Fish Auction Canteen

• Guided tour by architect Sjoerd Schamhart of the Fish Auction building he designed

• Workshop ‘Fieldwork for the enSEAclopaedia’ by Jan de Graaf and Bart Bomas, on the preparations for this book with 1001 stories about the sea

• Perspective painting workshop by artist Anneloes Groot, showing how new construction plans are making the horizon disappear from the harbor. She also gave a guided walk along Hellingweg.

Sea Travel I – Fruits of the Sea – 29 May, 2004
The first Stroom Sea Travel, during ‘The Week of the Sea’, marked the start of the sea project. At the Royal Library, travelers could view the original ‘Visbooc’ by Adriaen Coenen from 1585, explained by Coenen expert Florike Egmond. At Panorama Mesdag museum, Maarten de Kroon spoke about his film ‘Hollands Licht’. In Scheveningen Harbor, a visit was made to a freezing unit with a temperature of minus 40 degrees at shipping company Jaczon, and to the herring and fish company Jac. Den Dulk & Sons B.V. At the Fish Auction building, there was a lecture by Michel Langendijk (co-author with journalist Wouter Klootwijk of ‘The Good Fish Guide’) on good and bad fish. The trip concluded in the canteen of the Fish Auction with a grand sea tasting: numerous bites with North Sea ingredients from A to Z – from periwinkles to sea salt – prepared by Edwin van de Goor (Restaurant Seinpost) and Ramon Arias de Bles (Fish Auction Canteen).

Lectures
Mobile Urban Planning ‘In the Meantime’ – 1 October to 30 November, 2004
A series of workshops and a symposium in collaboration with housing corporation Vestia Scheveningen.
Keywords: In the Meantime, Housing and Youth, the Small Harbor.

Workshops ‘In the Meantime’ – 16 February, 2005
In December and January, four architecture firms participated in the workshops ‘In the Meantime: Building for Temporariness’. These workshops were part of the manifestation ‘The Sea, the Beach, and the Harbor’, which had already included various activities in 2004. The reason for the workshops was the changing landscape of the Scheveningen coast and harbor. The inherently ephemeral nature of this area – with its constant flow of ships, cargo, containers, residents, and visitors – is also reflected in the way space is used. As in other harbor areas, plots and buildings stand empty, awaiting new purposes. They form what might be called a pause landscape. In the workshops, architects were asked to explore possibilities for temporary construction and programming of urban functions.

Participants:
Duzan Doepel (ADD) and Jan Koning (Schie 2.0), Jeroen Schulze (Geurst en Schulze Architects), Theo Kupers (N2 Architects), Ton Venhoeven (Venhoeven CS Architects), Fred Feddes (reporter and participant), Bart Bomas (content coordination and organization), Jan de Graaf (supervisor)

Symposium ‘In the Meantime’ – 13 April, 2005
Following a series of workshops and an exhibition, the project ‘In the Meantime’ culminated on April 13, 2005, in a public debate on the cultural value of temporary space use. In the workshops, four design offices conducted research into strategies for areas in a so-called ‘in-between time’. Scheveningen (harbor) was chosen as a test case because of its inspiring coastal location and because harbor areas often face transitional periods. The announced departure of the transport company Norfolkline from Scheveningen underlined the urgency of the subject.

Publications
Publication as part of the project ‘In the Meantime’, focusing on temporary spatial use and serving as the final component of the manifestation ‘The Sea, the Beach, and the Harbor’.