Water is not only the origin of life, but an active agent that shapes the way it evolves. With Water School, the educational and research project founded by Studio Makkink & Bey, and Waterschool South, its Mediterranean spin-off promoted by Abadir, studies and promotes water and its impact on communities, promoting greater awareness of the use of this precious resource.
From March 23 to 27, 2026, we were hosted by Waterschool in Rotterdam, in the city's port district, for five days of hands-on, immersive learning involving water, earth, fire, wood, and metal. The workshop Five Elements in Five Days It combined manual practice, collective experimentation, co-design, and reflections on sustainability centered on the five elements of Chinese tradition, understood not as fixed categories, but as interdependent and continuously evolving processes.
The activity was carried out within the project's mobility program NIMI Project.
METAL & WATER
The workshop opened with the design and construction of a portable bread oven. With Maurik Stomps, an artist and researcher active in design, public space, and collective practices, we worked with materials collected in the M4H district. The oven was conceived as a gift for the public space of Park Paviljoen or the Waterschool itself: an object both functional and symbolic, to foster convivial relationships between people and places.
FIRE & WATER
In the next phase, we focused on fire as a transformative element, through collectively baking bread in the previously built oven. A meeting with a local cheesemaker offered alternative insights into artisanal food processing and production practices.
Credits: Chester Chuang
WATER & WATER
With Matilde Patuelli and Roberta Di Cosmo, the focus shifted entirely to water, through a LARP (Live Action Roleplay), a type of live role-playing game that allows participants to play characters and physically act within a pre-established scenario. We explored the biodiversity of the Keilehaven Tidal Park, attempting to empathize with the invasive marine species that have gradually become an integral part of this ecosystem. This immersive, dreamlike experience allowed us to set aside our anthropocentric perspective and observe relationships in the natural world from a new perspective.
EARTH & WATER
With Atelier NL, a Dutch studio that has been researching local and eco-sustainable materials for years, we traveled to Park Paviljoen to experiment with natural pigments. Collecting a series of soil and clay samples in the field, we learned how to work them to create truly usable paints and dyes, discovering how every variable in the process—from the soil grain to the sifting methods to the ingredients added to the mixture—produces a unique and unrepeatable color.
WOOD & WATER
Finally, we put the pigments previously developed to good use, applying them to wooden elements collected in the park and using them to dye fabrics, giving concrete form to the concept of circularity of materials.
During our trip to Rotterdam we also had the opportunity to immerse ourselves in the vibrant atmosphere of the Rotterdam Art Week and to visit the exhibition Fungi, Anarchistic Designers at the Nieuwe Instituut: a further opportunity to reflect on the infinite possibilities of connection between design and nature.
Credits: Chester Chuang and Nai-Dan Chang
Participants: Lucia Buscemi, Diego Conti, Roberta Di Mauro, Lorenzo Dugo, Giulia Faro, Marie Christelle Martinez, Aurora Milazzo, Gaia Patti, Lidia Persico, Aurora Piazza, Mayara Prado Albertoni, Clarissa Raimondo, Maria Luisa Trovia.
Accompanying teachers: Marco Falcone, Marco Francucci.