Wind Pavilions

Questioning our current relationship with wind energy

The Netherlands has a centuries-long relationship with wind energy. Traditional windmills used to be necessary for local safety and living standards – from grinding grain and sawing wood to draining polders. In addition, windmill sails were used for local communication. The old windmills were embedded in an economic, technological and social local system. Today's wind turbines, on the other hand, are anonymous towers of steel that, according to many, disfigure the landscape and that no longer have a direct social or economic relationship with the local community. The social relationship with our wind energy is alienated. Noud Sleumer asks whether, based on our historical connection with wind turbines, we cannot re-embed current wind turbines in both a technological-economic and a socio-cultural system with which people feel personally and collectively connected again. He uses our cultural heritage in the form of traditional ceramic tiles, plates, cups and souvenirs to design a new kind of windmill that questions our current relationship with wind energy.