Calling on artists to reveal and list the qualities of a place is a practice that is in no way exceptional. The result usually takes form through the production of photographs and works which are looked at like independent artworks. This is not Hans Venhuizen's stand, for his intervention is rather that of an active witness of an evolving society and a culture on the move. His approach consists, above all, in relaying the evolution of an ordinary, day-to-day culture, which is forever changing, in order to put across the conception of it. Making and modelling the programme in such a way that it already contains within it a spatial dimension and is implicitly part and parcel of the creation. This is the sense of his intervention when he proposes a competition programme for "Amphibious Living". Living with water, and building in marshy areas is nothing new in Holland. On the whole, people have come up with solutions which tended to restrict and control nature. Amphibious Living is aimed at altering attitudes. Living, working and building with water, rather than fighting against it. Juggling with a fluid and mobile landscape, going along with the movements it involves rather than blocking it with dams. Introducing a dynamic between land and water rather than imposing a man-made landscape.	(NL)
	Bureau Venhuizen Venhuizen (Hans) (1961)
	• Amphibious Living 2000