Floriade Expo Amsterdam - Almere 2022 was a Dutch

horticultural exposition A garden festival is a festival and exposition held to celebrate the arts of gardening, garden design, landscaping and landscape architecture. There are local garden festivals, regional garden festivals, national garden festivals and intern ...

held in

Almere Almere () is a planned city and municipality in the province of Flevoland, Netherlands, located about 20 km to the east of Amsterdam (as the crow flies) across the IJmeer. Bordering Lelystad and Zeewolde, the municipality of Almere compr ...

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. It is the seventh Floriade, held from 14 April to 9 October 2022. On 15 November 2017, Floriade Expo 2022 was officially recognized as a horticultural exhibition by the Bureau International des Expositions. The theme of the Expo is "Growing Green Cities", which focuses on the need to combine nature and cities. Construction of the site in

Weerwater Weerwater is a small artificial lake in Almere Stad, the central district of Almere in the province Flevoland, Netherlands. The water and shores are used for recreation. On and around Weerwater a cable ski track, a watersportscenter, watchtower ...

started in February 2020 by Amvest and Dura Vermeer. The 2022 bid for Floriade was awarded in 2012, a few weeks before the closing of the event in Venlo. NTR, the organizing body of the event informed the media in October 2021 that no decision had been made as to whether an eighth Floriade would be held, possibly ending a tradition.

History

Nomination

The candidacy for hosting Floriade Expo 2022 was opened in September 2011. By the closing date of 1 December 2011, seven candidates had applied: the Rivierengebied region, the Noord-Holland-Noord region, the municipality of Almere, the municipality of Amsterdam, the Boskoop region, the municipality of Groningen and the Coöperatie Flevoland 2022 from Lelystad. After an initial selection round, the Dutch Horticultural Council (NTR) made a decision to narrow down the selection to four candidates. The NTR tasked the four candidates to make a bid book in which the plans would be worked out in more detail. This bid book had to be submitted by 1 July 2012. The four candidates for the Floriade 2022 were: *

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

* The

Boskoop Boskoop () is a town in the province of South Holland. It was a separate municipality until it merged into Alphen aan den Rijn in 2014. The town had a population of 15,050 in 2012 and covers an area of of which is water. It's the world's bigge ...

region *

Groningen Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen (province), Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of t ...

During a meeting at Keukenhof Castle in Lisse on 24 September 2012, the NTR announced that the Floriade 2022 would be organised by the municipality of Almere.

Construction

Work started on the Floriade site on 14 February 2020.The site will first be made ready for construction, after which the builders start to build roads, bridges, showcase houses, i-Streets and country pavilions. The first phase of pavilions were designed by

Erick van Egeraat Erick van Egeraat (; born 1956) is a Dutch architect and author. He heads the architectural practice based in Rotterdam with offices in Moscow, Budapest and Prague. He is best known for his projects of ING Group Headquarters in Budapest, Drent ...

, Paul de Ruiter Architects,

René van Zuuk René van Zuuk (born 3 September 1962, in Doesburg) is a Dutch architect. René van Zuuk studied building production technology at the Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, where he graduated in 1988. Directly after receiving his engineering dipl ...

, SeARCH and Studio RAP. The master plan for the Floriade was designed by

MVRDV MVRDV is a Rotterdam, Netherlands-based architecture and urban design practice founded in 1993. The name is an acronym for the founding members: Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs, and Nathalie de Vries. History Maas and Van Rijs worked at OMA, De Vri ...

. A preview centre opened onsite in 2020, allowing visitors to tour the construction site and see the developments for themselves. A Doppelmayr cable car was installed at the park which opened in June 2021 and operated as part of Floriade Preview until the end of September 2021. Management announced that 12,500 visitors purchased tickets for the preview experience in 2021.

After the exhibition

After the Expo, the area of the horticultural exhibition will be transformed in a residential area with 660 homes known as "Hortus". Half of the planned housing units were built before the opening of the event, meanwhile, the temporary exhibition spaces will be replaced with new housing units. Some of the exhibition spaces, including the

Winy Maas Wilhelmus "Winy" Maas (born 1959 in Schijndel) is a Dutch architect, landscape architect, professor and urbanist. In 1993 together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries he set up MVRDV. Education He completed his studies at the RHSTL Boskoo ...

-designed arboretum, will be retained as part of the future community.

Leadership and Management

Jannewietske de Vries Jannewietske Annie de Vries (born 11 November 1961 in Beetgum) is a Dutch politician. She was a member of the Gedeputeerde Staten, provincial executive of Friesland from 2007 to 2015. Since 2018 she has been mayor of Súdwest-Fryslân. Refere ...

and

Jan Willem Griep Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...

were named General Manager of Floriade 2022 in 2016 Griep had an accident and suffered from major injuries in 2018 and was not able to retain his position.

departed her position during the same time as she was appointed as mayor of Zuidwest Friesland, As part of a change of vision by the city of Almere, the board of directors also parted effectively leaving the expo without management.

Peter Verdaasdonk Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

was named as General Manager in 2019, only to depart one year later, when was named General Manager. Cloo led Floriade through rough waters when the city council of

announced it wanted to re-evaluate whether the expo could continue in the aftermath of the

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease quick ...

pandemic. Cloo left his position in April 2021 as he had lost the trust in the city counsel, although there was also a hefty discussion about his salary, allowing him to only work 4-hours per week for the last four months of his assignment.

Sven Stimac Sven (in Danish and Norwegian, also Svend and also in Norwegian most commonly Svein) is a Scandinavian first name which is also used in the Low Countries and German-speaking countries. The name itself is Old Norse for "young man" or "young ...

was appointed CEO but an employment conflict shortly after his appointment, subsequently Hans Bakker was appointed as CEO. Several senior managers decided to depart the organization.

Gallery

File:Floriade Artwork.jpg, Displays on Green Island File:Utopia Island Floriade.jpg, View of Utopia Island File:Okay, I'm Alex.jpg, Interactive art display, ''Okay, I'm Alex'' File:China Pavilion Floriade 2022.jpg, China pavilion File:Germany Pavilion Floriade 2022.jpg, Germany pavilion File:Japan Pavilion Floriade 2022.jpg, Japan pavilion File:Floriade Tiny Houses.jpg, Eco-friendly

tiny houses The tiny-house movement (also known as the small house movement) is an architectural and social movement that advocates for downsizing living spaces, simplifying, and essentially "living with less."Ford, Jasmine, and Lilia Gomz-Lanier. Family an ...

on display File:Almere Floriade Lighthouse.jpg, Playground and lighthouse on Utopia Island File:Floriade-2022-Almere-Seilbahn-Station.jpg, The world's first cable car station located above the water at Floriade 2022

References

{{List of world exhibitions International horticultural exhibitions 2022 events in the Netherlands by month Almere 2022 in Europe