The Green Cathedral

Dutch artist Marinus Boezem's De Groene Kathedraal is a walkable land-art work in Almere: in 1987 he planted 178 black poplars in the exact floor plan of Reims Cathedral, 150 meters long and 75 meters wide. Boezem conceived the planting as a deliberately contradictory monument: a Gothic cathedral made from living material that, by architectural standards, will not last. The poplars will die off in a few decades, but a second planting in beech has already been laid out next to it as a negative form that will grow into the actual cathedral over time. The ensemble sits in the polder on the edge of Almere and is freely accessible. Inside the poplar nave the acoustics shift subtly but perceptibly.