The Floriade 2012 was a Dutch horticultural exposition held in

Venlo Venlo () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg (Netherlands), ...

, Netherlands. It was the sixth Floriade and was held from April 5 to October 7, 2012. The Floriade 2012 was opened by

Queen Beatrix Beatrix (Beatrix Wilhelmina Armgard, ; born 31 January 1938) is a member of the Dutch royal house who reigned as Queen of the Netherlands from 30 April 1980 until her abdication in 2013. Beatrix was born during the reign of her maternal gr ...

. The exposition's theme and slogan was "''Be part of the theatre in nature; get closer to the quality of life''".

Preparation

The Dutch Horticultural Council selected a number of candidates starting in June 2004 for the organization of the Floriade 2012. The official candidates were: *

Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...

Drechtsteden The Drechtsteden (; Dutch for "Drecht cities") are a number of towns and cities bordering each other in the delta area of the rivers Oude Maas, Noord, and Beneden-Merwede in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. These cooperate in the ''Gem ...

(

Alblasserdam Alblasserdam () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. It covers an area of , of which is water, and has a population of as of . Alblasserdam is officially a part of the Drechtsteden region. A p ...

Dordrecht Dordrecht (), historically known in English as Dordt (still colloquially used in Dutch, ) or Dort, is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Western Netherlands, lo ...

, 'S-Gravendeel,

Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands. It is located on the island of IJsselmonde, and borders with Zwijndrecht, Ridderkerk, and the Noord River (with Alblasserdam and Papendrecht on the other side). T ...

Papendrecht Papendrecht () is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, at the crossing of the River Beneden Merwede and the Noord River. The municipality had a population of in and covers an area of of which is ...

, Sliedrecht, Zwijndrecht) *NoordWest 8 (a partnership of several organizations in the field of thirty municipalities in the region of

Alkmaar Alkmaar () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. Alkmaar is well known fo ...

Hoorn Hoorn () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the northwest of the Netherlands, in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. It is the largest town an ...

and

Den Helder Den Helder () is a municipality and a city in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. Den Helder occupies the northernmost point of the North Holland peninsula. It is home to the country's main naval base. From here the Royal TESO fe ...

) *Region Venlo *

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

Tilburg Tilburg () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant. With a population of 22 ...

/ Brabantstad *District

Amsterdam-Noord Amsterdam-Noord (; ) is a Boroughs of Amsterdam, borough of Amsterdam, Netherlands with a population of about 90,000. The IJ (Amsterdam), IJ, the body of water which separates it from Amsterdam-Centrum and the rest of the city, is situated southwes ...

The municipalities of Rotterdam and Arnhem had in earlier decided to withdraw the candidacy because the financial risks were deemed too high. In Drechtsteden, the five participating municipalities failed to make a positive decision. In Drechtsteden, the concerns of high costs, environmental impact and disruption of Sunday rest were reasons against hosting the festival. The board of the Dutch Horticultural Council announced on December 8, 2004, that the plan of the only remaining candidate, Venlo, met the criteria. The official preview event, named "Floriade Invites", hosted 22,000 visitors on June 20, 2010. A cable car by Doppelmayer was part of the Floriade Preview Centre which operated in 2011. The Floriade, which was designed by landscape architect John Boon, made prominent use of

Cradle-to-cradle design Cradle-to-cradle design (also referred to as 2CC2, C2C, cradle 2 cradle, or regenerative design) is a biomimetic approach to the design of products and systems that models human industry on nature's processes, where materials are viewed as nut ...

The festival

The Floriade Park covered a total of 66 hectares (163 acres), including 22 hectares (55 acres) of forest, two and a half acres of buildings and four acres of water. Organizers of the festival planted 1,700 trees, 20,000 shrubs, 200,000 perennials, 65,000 water plants, one and a half million bulbs and 95,000 annuals. There were 60

charging stations A charging station, also known as a charge point, chargepoint, or electric vehicle supply equipment (EVSE), is a power supply device that supplies electrical power for recharging plug-in electric vehicles (including battery electric vehicle ...

for

electric cars An electric car or electric vehicle (EV) is a passenger automobile that is propelled by an electric traction motor, using electrical energy as the primary source of propulsion. The term normally refers to a plug-in electric vehicle, typ ...

in the parking lot of the Floriade. The park consisted of five themed areas, separated by woodland. Each theme area had its own decor, program and activities. *Relax & Heal *Green Engine *Education & Innovation *Environment *World Show Stage The Floriade contained two imposing buildings. The design was created between 2007 and 2010 and the first tree planting was in 2008. The same year also saw construction of the theme field, Relax & Heal, and a year later the shrubs were planted. In 2010, the perennials were placed and planted borders. The last theme field Green Engine was built. Villa Flora was one of the biggest crowd pullers at the Floriade. The fully energy-neutral building is a symbol of

sustainability Sustainability is a social goal for people to co-exist on Earth over a long period of time. Definitions of this term are disputed and have varied with literature, context, and time. Sustainability usually has three dimensions (or pillars): env ...

, innovation and the

green economy A green economy is an economy that aims at reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities, and that aims for sustainable development without environmental degradation, degrading the environment. It is closely related with ecological econ ...

. Villa Flora is a design by the architect

Jón Kristinsson Jón Kristinsson (born May 7, 1936, Reykjavík) is an Icelandic architect. Biography Kristinsson matriculated from Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík in 1956. He then studied architecture at Delft University of Technology. In 1966, Kristinsson toge ...

. The Innova has been designed by former government architect

Jo Coenen Jo Coenen (born 30 September 1949 in Heerlen) is a Dutch architect and urban planner. He studied architecture at the Eindhoven University of Technology (graduating in 1975), and later held professorships at TU Karlsruhe, Eindhoven University of T ...

. The building is 70 meters (230') high and has 16 floors, with exhibition rooms on the 16th floor, and has been redeveloped to become part of the Venlo GreenPark, a green business park. A 1,100 meter (1200 yard) long cable car system running through the park opened on April 16, 2011. Queen Beatrix visited the Floriade a second time during the

state visit A state visit is a formal visit by the head of state, head of a sovereign state, sovereign country (or Governor-general, representative of the head of a sovereign country) to another sovereign country, at the invitation of the head of state (or ...

of President

Abdullah Gül Abdullah Gül (; ; born 29 October 1950) is a Turkish politician who served as the 11th president of Turkey from 2007 to 2014. He previously served for four months as Prime Minister of Turkey, Prime Minister from 2002 to 2003, and concurrently s ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, in which the president opened the Turkish pavilion.

Aftermath and legacy

Management had estimated a total of 2.3 million visitors would come to Floriade 2012. During the closing ceremony on October 7, 2012, CEO Paul Beck announced a total 2,046,684 guests were welcomed. Initially media falsely reported a loss of 9 million Euros. In 2013 Floriade reported a loss of 5.5 million Euros, later this was adjusted to 5.4 Million Euros. Later the legacy and spin-off of the expo were valued at 350 Million Euros and local and regional entrepreneurs noted an increase in spending during and after the expo. The site of the expo is now home to Greenport Venlo, a variety of new companies are now located in the former entrance building and Villa Flora and large logistics centers occupy the site of the former parking lot.

Gallery

File:Innovatoren-nacht (cropped).jpg, The "Innovation Tower", Floriade entrance File:Floriade 2012 - Kabelbaan Gondola.jpg, Cable car station File:Floriade 2012 - Nederlandse Paviljoen.jpg, Netherlands' pavilion File:Floriade 2012 - Villa Flora.jpg, Villa Flora

References

External links

Official website of the BIE
{{coord, 51.4058, N, 6.1228, E, source:wikidata, display=title International horticultural exhibitions 2012 in the Netherlands Venlo Festivals in the Netherlands Culture of Limburg (Netherlands) Garden festivals in the Netherlands 2012 festivals Floriade (Netherlands)