26/05/2026
MIARD I Design Project Series -
Post-Purification Garden 2026
What is remained after purification? If one place becomes clean, does another body have to hold the pollution? If water is purified, where does the pollution gо?
This project began with the reed beds of the Biesbosch, the Netherlands. I became interested in the way Phragmites australis does not simply “clean” polluted water, but holds traces of purification within its own body. Around the reed roots, iron plaque forms as a mineral layer, binding and accumulating substances such as heavy metals and sediments.
Rather than seeing purification as disappearance, the Post Purification Garden understands it as a process of accumulation, storage, and transformation.
Post-purification garden: a living and speculative wetland system where reeds, water, soil, minerals, sensors, and light reveal the hidden material traces of contamination. Hybrid reeds respond to changes in the water, turning invisible pollution into a visible signal.
Phragmites Australis becomes both a plant and an archive, a body that remembers what the water has carried.
Living reeds, wetland plants, water, soil, iron plaque, acrylic basin, Arduino, TDS sensors, LEDs, cables, Hybrid Reeds, polluted liquid samples. 120 x 74 x 18cm
