BREATHING IN NEW LIFE

Here at Paradigm we like to build stuff. All of the parts (stage, DJ booth, bars, etc.) for our festival are made with passion and second-hand materials. The primary ingredient for these parts is wood. Used up wood that comes from all over the place. These second-hand materials fit right into our recycling and environmental-friendly policy, which is playing a bigger role than ever within our Shift to the Suikerunie terrain.

One of these projects is harvesting the old EMG warehouse. The foundation for this warehouse are giant wooden frames, which we are going to recycle and use for building one of the stages and DJ booth. These frames are made of laminated wood, kept together with special blend of glue. These frames are bent through excessive use of heat from steam. The frames are steamed for a long time until they were bent and shaped in the way they are now. They have been created just after World War 2 and were revolutionary at the time.

Currently, the warehouse is being scrapped and these frames are carefully disassembled from the rest of the building. Unfortunately, the building has seen some fire damage, which didn’t exclude the precious frames. It is expected, however, that we can harvest about 80% of these frames.

The core of the harvest are these frames, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of the building is worthless. Far from that, actually! The building was also equipped with a lot of other useful parts, such as sliding doors and wooden beams in all shapes and sizes. These objects will also serve a purpose in the months and years to come. The current plan for these materials is to use them in the same build that we’re going to use the frames for. Ultimately, we want to build a dome that will be open and closed at the same time. This way, our festival visitors will be kept dry whenever it rains and it will also grant the opportunity to let some fresh air in. This has an obvious advantage of it being very welcome whenever the dancing floor heats up, but this also means that the wood can dry after a rainy day, preventing the wood to rot.