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POLDERS
The Dutch landscape of polders framed by perfectly straight ditches and dikes, and dotted with windmills, cattle and farmhouses is famed the world over. But this landscape is under siege. Advancing urbanisation, as well as changes in the agricultural and water-storage sectors, will significantly influence how the countryside is planned in the future. Highlighting the polders once again and pointing out their landscape and spatial qualities will enable us to assess the merits of developments in these areas more accurately.
The Dutch polder landscape is world-famous for many reasons, but the most important reasons always include reference to the beauty of the landscape and the feats of engineering. Painters, poets and photographers have depicted the openness and emptiness of this landscape for centuries. Their splendid works capture the characteristic meadows bordered by ditches, dikes, windmills, and farmhouses. The town or village appears at a suitable distance, visible only on the horizon. The polders also symbolise the heroic conquest of nature, a centuries-long struggle to create land from water. This new territory was then laid out in a rational manner. Although the Dutch landscape has more to offer than just polders, this particular landscape has come to symbolise the organisational talent, merchant mentality, and entrepreneurial skill of the Dutch.
The large-scale transformation of the Dutch landscape started centuries ago. Areas of nature were made suitable for cultivation and settlement through a long process of reclamation and land consolidation. The process turned a natural landscape into a cultural landscape. Polders form the backbone of this new terrain, shaped since the eight century by a process of poldering and drainage. The empty polder landscape formed a blank canvas for experiments in urban and landscape
design. Large-scale projects were accomplished time and again. Although agricultural interests were a central concern initially, the polders were in fact colonised from the cities. Accordingly, their designs reflect an urban perspective. Many polders have been swallowed up by advancing urban development over the past century. Their structure has often determined the scale of urban development, though their rural character has of course vanished in the process. And the process continues unabated. On top of that, the impact that changes in agriculture and water-management will have on Dutch landscape planning means that a transformation of the typical polder landscape seems unavoidable.
The exhibition 'Polders' will present the past, present and future of fifteen polders with a series of new models as well as historical maps, prints, drawings and photographs. It spotlights not only the process of transformation of many well-known polders such as the Beemster (1608-1612), the Watergraafsmeer (1629), the Haarlemmermeer (1840-1852), and the IJsselmeer Polders, but also the planning challenge in less familiar areas such as the Borssele Polder (1616), Zoetermeerse Meer Polder (1614), and Horstermeer Polder (1882).
Date: from 27 May to 4 September 2005
Location: Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI) Gallery 1, Museumpark 25, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Curator: Linda Vlassenrood
Exhibition designer: Marcel Schmalgemeijer
Series of models: TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture - Chair in Landscape Architecture
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