Healing Bridge

Status: In Development | Last updated: June 2026

Water is essential to life in the city, yet this realisation often remains invisible in our everyday actions. Together with the Water Embassy, this Co/Lab explores how design can foster a new relationship between people and water. The aim is to create a place where encounter, engagement and care for water come together.

The Challenge

Climate change is leading to longer periods of drought, heavier rainfall and increasing pressure on water systems. The water transition requires not only technical innovation, but also a different relationship between people and water.

Water management is the responsibility of the government. As a result, many people remain unaware of what is needed to keep water clean, healthy and available. This Co/Lab explores how design can actively involve residents in shaping the future of the water system.

The Design Challenge

What if… building bridges could lead to new ways of working together, with each other and with water?

Can a bridge be more than a connection between two riverbanks? Could it also become a place where people experience, care for and value water? And how might such a place contribute to the creation of a community that shares responsibility for a healthy living environment?

The Design Approach

For this Co/Lab, we are collaborating with Studio Floris Schoonderbeek. Floris Schoonderbeek is a designer, concept developer and innovator. With his studio, he develops products and works that respond to new needs and contribute to a more independent and sustainable way of life.

At the heart of the project is the exploration of the Healing Bridge: a physical intervention that brings together encounter, curiosity and care for water.

The Eindhoven Canal serves as the project’s case study. Here, Schoonderbeek investigates how a bridge can contribute to water quality, biodiversity and community engagement. Wherever possible, biobased materials will be used, ensuring that material choices also reflect the ambitions of circular and regenerative construction.

The Co/Lab consists of two phases.

In the first phase, the Schoonderbeek develops a series of design proposals, material studies and an interactive prototype. During Dutch Design Week, these experiments will be presented along the Eindhoven Canal. Visitors are invited to contribute ideas, share their experiences and actively participate in the research process.

In the second phase, the insights gathered during Dutch Design Week will be translated into a more developed design proposal. The project concludes with a final presentation, which also explores how the concept can progress towards realisation.

Throughout the design process, several principles guide the development of the project. The Healing Bridge should strengthen the relationship between residents and water, encourage positive contributions to water quality and align with the vision of the Water Embassy. The project also explores how the design can be safe, future-proof and ultimately applicable in other locations.

The ultimate ambition is not simply to design a bridge, but to create a place where people, water and the city come together to build a regenerative future.

Insights

This section will be updated throughout the Co/Lab with findings from the research, conversations with Voice of Water Lien de Ruyck and local residents, experiments conducted during DDW, and reflections from designers and project partners.

About the Water Embassy

The Water Embassy is a creative platform led by Anouk van der Poll, bringing together De Dommel Water Authority, the Municipality of Eindhoven, the Province of North Brabant and Rijkswaterstaat to work towards a regenerative future for water.

By using design as a research tool, the Water Embassy explores how we can design not only for water, but with water.

Latest Development: the Co/Lab is now underway. The design challenge has been defined and the design-research around the Eindhoven Canal have begun.