Henriëtte Waal's peat atelier tackles climate change with "new ways of living" in wetlands

Peat meadows are the most effective terrestrial carbon sink on Earth. In this interview, designer Henriëtte Waal offers solutions for preserving these swampy landscapes, from bio-based products to repurposed farmhouses.

Waal is best known as the co-founder of biodesign lab Atelier Luma. Her latest project, Veenweide Atelier, is developing strategies for the future of the peat meadows in Friesland, the Netherlands.

Formed of partially decomposed plants, peat covers three per cent of the Earth's land, but stores nearly a third of all soil carbon. This is twice as much as all the carbon stored in forests.

"Peat stores 50 times more carbon than a forest does [per square metre], and 500 times more than the ocean," Waal told Dezeen. "It's really powerful for the health of the earth."

Despite the benefits, 18 million tonnes of peat are extracted in Europe per year, primarily used for energy production and horticulture.

Many remaining peat areas have meanwhile dried out due to intensive agriculture and dairy farming.

Veenweide Atelier, which translates as "peat meadow atelier", is working with scientists, farmers and designers to find ways of restoring the Frisian peat and supporting the people and wildlife that depend on it.

Covering 90,000 hectares, it is the largest expanse of peat landscape in the Netherlands.

"It's a question of how we design with this landscape," said Waal. "We need to find new ways of living there and nurturing non-human life there."

The lab is presenting its initial findings in the exhibition Veenweide Atelier: 
Design for a Sunken Marsh, on show at the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden until 26 October.

The case studies include various products made using biomaterials that can be harvested from the wetlands without harming the natural ecosystem.

Locally based designer Tjeerd Veenhoven has developed a sheet material made by pressing wetland-grown bulrush (also known as cattail), which can be used for building construction.

Designer Friso Wiersma designed a series of furniture in this material, produced in collaboration with manufacturer SAM Panels and social enterprise Empatec.

With experience as an in-house designer at IKEA, Wiersma chose to coat the material in a paper made from offcut fibres, supplied by Westzaan-based mill De Schoolmeester.

"If you want to make something for the market, it needs to be desirable," said Waal. "That's why we made it muted in tone and introduced round edges."

Veenweide Atelier also collaborated with Faber Futures, led by Natsai Audrey Chieza, on a project using biotechnology.

The team used peat soil bacteria to create textile dyes. They applied these to linen grown in Fryslân, resulting in unique and colourful fabric prints.

The process utilised soil from a dairy farm in the Frisian peat meadow land. Waste heat generated by the farm's existing production processes fuelled the fermentation process.

"We tried to do things that made sense for both industry and farmers," said Waal.

"This is a radical implementation of technology that already exists," she said. "It's a wild solution but prototyped in the real world."

Another proposal offers new uses for an old farmhouse. Developed with Ooze Architects and landscape association It Fryske Gea, it suggests three different ways of repurposing this old building.

One scenario keeps it as a farm, moving into regenerative forms of agriculture.

Another transforms it into a community centre, while the third explores how it could be used for educating the public about peat meadow transition.

According to Waal, one of the biggest challenges is making people understand the importance of retaining peat.

"People understand the importance of preserving the Amazon rainforest and the oceans, but they don't have feelings for peat," she said.

The reason, she thinks, is that peat's impact on climate change and biodiversity is not immediately obvious.

"It's all happening under your feet," she explained. "It's smelly and swampy, and although it's very rich in species, these species are tiny or invisible."

"It also has a long history of poverty and malaria, which are all connected in our feelings towards this landscape."

Waal launched Veenweide Atelier over a year ago after receiving an invitation from Arcadia, a cultural organisation born out of Leeuwarden Fryslân hosting the European Capital of Culture in 2018.

As co-founder of Atelier Luma, she had overseen the development of biomaterials made from crystallised salt, sunflower fibres and algae, which were used to build the lab's pioneering Le Magasin Électrique workspace.

The brief for Veenweide Atelier was to apply the same thinking to the Frisian landscape. The project also allowed her to draw on previous experience working in wetlands around the Mediterranean.

With this years-long project, she hopes to communicate the value of peat across the Netherlands and worldwide, putting pressure on governments to end harmful extraction.

Although this extraction has been phased out in the Netherlands, the country's largest supermarket, Albert Heijn, is among Dutch companies that still use imported peat for cultivating fruit and vegetable products.

"There's a sense of inferiority for the communities that live in these peatlands; they carry the burden of climate change effects," stated Waal.

"We want to make people aware that with every vegetable or fruit they buy in the supermarket, they are also part of peat destruction," she said, citing research by activist group Re-Peat.

"That motivates me more to bring a hopeful story here. There's a real need for innovation."

Photography and video courtesy of Veenweide Atelier.

Veenweide Atelier: Design for a Sunken Marsh runs from 24 May to 26 October 2025 at the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands. See Dezeen Events Guide for more architecture and design events around the world.

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