Green gardens full of inspiration, sustainable innovations, quality of life in the city and solutions for a hopeful green future. That makes the hearts of The Groundbreakers beat faster! And these are precisely the topics that are central to the Floriade World Horticultural Exhibition Growing Green Cities have as a theme.

We traveled with the team to the flourishing center of the country: Almere. Where Floriade Expo 2022 will give more than 400 international and national participants a stage to present their greenest solutions. After flying over the park with the cable car, we had a good bird's-eye view of what this green park had to offer us. We would like to take you through the highlights of our visit.


The Growing Pavilion

The Growing Pavilion thus attracted our unanimous attention. This iconic pavilion is built from only bio-based materials. The outside of the pavilion is made of mycelium panels; fungi that are heated to 40 degrees and serve as a perfect building material in the mix with hemp. This fungus grows in five to ten days and is also waterproof and insulating. The roof of the hub is built in such a way that rainwater is cleverly collected in a reservoir underground. To top it all off, this hub is also CO2 negative – we are impressed. We may soon meet in such a CO2 negative hub built from fungi and hemp because we are fans!


Shades of Nature

We were amazed by the 'Shades of Nature' in the pavilion of the Almere Wolunie. This colorful pavilion has three special features. First of all, glass jars are filled with knitted sheep in water to which a natural dye has been added. The light from outside gives beautiful colors. A large eye has been made at the back with recycled fabrics, which is an indictment of the makers against consumer society. And finally, the entire pavilion is made of raw wood with a dry assembly. This makes it easy to dismantle and rebuild the pavilion. The purpose of the pavilion was to share knowledge about sustainability in the textile industry. Interesting theme and we enjoyed the impressive color spectacle.


The Exploded View Beyond Building

The literal highlight was of course the cable car, but our proverbial highlight of the day was a tour by an enthusiastic storyteller through the Exploded View Beyond Building. An exhibition in the form of a house that has been constructed completely sustainably with numerous biobased and circular materials. A truly sustainable living environment in the form of a private house with a different story in every room. We were introduced to, among other things, laminate made of cattail, insulation made of hemp, kitchen cabinets made of roadside grasses and wall panels made of fungi that are not only insulating and fire-retardant, but also water-repellent. Our favorite? Beautiful seaweed wine glasses. You may see them soon at our Friday afternoon drinks.

Want to know more about these projects? Then go to the website from Floriade.