Design Map · Eindhoven
Dissolving Edges
Graduation project by Siri Heidweiller at Design Academy Eindhoven, 2026. Shown during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven on Design Map, location F5.
‘Dissolving Edges’ is a drawing machine that questions the Dutch tradition of controlling and fixing the boundary between land and water. Focusing on the Wadden Sea, where human intervention has restricted the natural movement of coastlines, the project proposes relearning how to live with water's dynamics rather than continually resisting them.
A custom-built plotter stands between two basins containing water and ink, representing sea and land, with a map of the Wadden coast between them. Live measurements of tides, waves, and wind direct a brush across its surface, gradually eroding and redistributing the printed coastline. While the machine runs, the boundaries between land and sea become an evolving gradient. The work returns power to the forces that shaped the landscape of the Netherlands, proposing that human responses focused on control should be unlearnt and shift towards listening and cohabitation with forces we cannot fully predict or continue to control.