A symposium organized with Zone2Source, the Environmental Humanities Center Amsterdam and UvA Critical Heritage Ecologies
On the occasion of 1 year Zoop Amstelpark, which was launched on 4th of October 2025, we organize a series of events. On Thursday October 1 we invite various speakers to explore together with us if the Amstelpark heritage as a site of a former world exhibition on horticulture can become a place where we inquire into the ecological issues of our times.
Speakers: Imke van Hellemondt (Independent researcher, History of Landscape Architecture), Joost Emmerik (landscape architect, Amsterdam Academy of Architecture), Elyze Storms-Smeets (Prof. Cultural Geography, Radboud University), Janna oud Ammerveld (Critical Heritage Researcher, Utrecht University), Theun Karelse and Anne Jesuina de Andrade (artist and Sprekers with the Living Zoöp Amstelpark). Moderators: Marilena Mela (Environmental Humanities Center V.U.) and Colin Sterling (critical heritage ecologies, UvA)
Time Thursday Oktober 1 • 1 – 6.30 PM
Location: Zone2Source (het Glazen Huis, Amstelpark)
Language: English
The Amstelpark, designed for the international horticulture exhibition Floriade in 1972, was granted monumental status in 2022, as much of the original structure of the exhibition is still in place. In October 2025, Amstelpark became the first public Zoöp, a ‘cooperation of all life’ in which the interests of all living beings are actively represented in decision making. During this symposium, we will discuss what it means when a heritage site becomes a Zoöp – or, the other way around – when a Zoöp is also a heritage site?
Does the desire to preserve the park’s heritage support or hinder the process of giving all life a voice in the park and working towards multispecies justice? Could an alternative understanding of heritage – in which we include immaterial and living heritage – as a process of collective meaning-making that goes beyond divisions of culture and nature, provide new directions on how to bring these two designations together? Our central question is: can the heritage of the Amstelpark, as the location of the 1972 Floriade, become a learning ground for the ecological issues of our time?
The symposium consists of two panels: the first addresses the monument status of the Amstelpark and the history of the Floriade, and in the second panel, we look at alternative approaches to living heritage. Finally, together with our Speakers with the Living, we explore where the Monument and the Zoöp status of the Amstelpark intersect, how heritage gains contemporary relevance, and what the value of life is within heritage.
Participation is free. Register here.
Programme
13:00: doors open
13.15: welcome by Alice Smits (director Zone2Source)
13:20: introduction by Colin Sterling and Marilena Mela (moderators)
13:30-14:30: Amstelpark: From Floriade to Zoöp
with Imke van Hellemondt (Independent researcher, History of Landscape Architecture), Joost Emmerik (garden and landscape architect, Amsterdam Academy of Architecture)
14:30-16:00: Meet Ms. Buxus and the Rhododendrons
walk & talk through heritage sites in the park
16:00-17:00: Living Heritage in theory and practice
with Elyze Storms-Smeets (Professor of Cultural Geography, Radboud University) and Janna oud Ammerveld (Critical Heritage Researcher, Utrecht University)
17:00-17:30: Response by the two Speakers with the Living of Zoöp Amstelpark (Anne Jesuina de Andrade and Theun Karelse)
17:30-18:30 drinks
This symposium is organized by Zone2Source (Alice Smits) in collaboration with the Environmental Humanities Center Amsterdam (Katja Kwastek, Marilena Mela) and UvA Critical Heritage Ecologies (Colin Sterling).
Critical Heritage Ecologies 