POLDERS:

Three main topics will be discussed:

1. The story of peat
a. What is peat and the relation between
peat and polders.
2. 2. Polders
a. Peat Polder
b. Lake-bed Polder
c. Ijsselmeer Polder
3. 19th Century Land Reclamation DIAGRAM:
a. Rise Fields of North-Italy 1. From the embankment plants grow into the
b. Colonies of Benevolence. pond.
2. Flowing water plants establish a layer where
Reclamation & Polders: weed grows.
The practical use was superior to aesthetics. 3. Nutrition stops the growth weeds and other
 FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION plants, like grasses and sphagnum take their
place.
17TH CENTURY: 4. The pond overgrows with sphagnum and bogs.
The line between functional use and aesthetic 5. Sphagnum grows above water level. Sphagnum
experience faded. And slowly got considered as a is like a sponge: It can hold water easily. The rest
designed Landscape. of the plants cannot survive in such a wet
system and what’s left is a PEAT MORE or a
PEAT: HIGH MORE PEAT (Dutch: Bog Peat or Peat Bog)
A soft black or brown substance formed from plants just
RECLAMATION DUTCH PEAT BOGS (950-1250 AD):
under the surface of the ground. Decaying plants form
At the reclamation (Medieval colonists(?)) made use
another sort of peat soil than trees(?).
of the slight slope of dome-shaped peatbogs to drain
- Forms when plant material does not fully decay
the surface layer of these bogs.
in acidic and anaerobic conditions.
 Water always flows downhill (gravity) and in this
- Composed out of wetland vegetation.
way the soil dehydrated and so the colonists
- Wetland vegetation: Bog plants, mosses, shrubs
could transform wet peatland into agricultural
- Holds water easily (as it accumulates)
land.
c. Natural watercourse as a base
PEAT MOSS:
d. Digging ditches to the watercourse
Is the layer of decaying, water-saturated sphagnum
e. Construction of dikes to return water
moss that has sunk below the surface.
from the upper and adjacent peat areas
SPHAGNUM MOSS:
f. Usually a long line of farms.
Is a plant that grows on the surface of soil or a swamp

BOG PEAT:
Wetlands with accumulation of considerable amount of
decomposed moss (mostly Sphagnum) and vegetation
matter. 
 Peat bogs are types of mire where peat, a deposit of
dead plant material—often mosses, and in a majority
of cases, sphagnum moss, - is accumulated. Bogs
occur where the water at the ground surface is acidic
and low in nutrients. In general, the low fertility and
cool, moist climate results in relatively slow plant
growth. The decay of biomass is even slower owing
to the water-saturated soil which results in
accumulation of peat.
The settlers would dig from the river (The foot of the
peat bog) uphill and then gravity would do its work and
drain the land.
FAN-SHAPED PEAT LANDSCAPE:
The shape arose as follows:
1. Digging started at the foot of the higher peat
dome. And the settlers would dig up the hill.
2. The peat dehydrated and lost its shape and
hight
3. What’s left is a typical peat fan-shaped
parcellation.
 THIS IS A SIGN OF MEDIEVAL PEAT
RECLAMATION!
CONSEQUENCES PEAT RECLAMATION:
When peat is exposed to air it starts to oxidise, which is
an irreversible process. Peat can only exist when it is still
wet.
 Soon after the reclamations peat shrinkage and
peat oxidation caused several meters of peat
land subsidence.
Problem:
When the surface level (read: peat soil?) sinks below the
water table. The desired crops do not grow on wetlands
and what follows is a chain of cause-and-effect.
 The Dutch lower the water table which results in
the peat further oxidising and subsiding the
ground level. In reaction the water table is
lowered again end so forth. (The Dutch are still
stuck in this negative spiral)
- Holme Post – Cambridgeshire:
Makes the shrinkage visible. The top of the pole
was at ground level when the pole was first
placed in 1848. By now the surface subside over
4m.
POLDER:
- Hydraulic system:
An area in which the water level can be
artificially controlled by natural drainage or
pumping by windmills or mechanical pumping
installations.
- Entity in the landscape:
A landscape with a coherent topographical
pattern generally surrounded by elements such
as dikes or embankments, which defines the
space. The polder is and makes the landscape,
it’s an entity.
- Social arrangement:
Maintaining a polder means that you have/had
to organize the inhabitants, which needs a social
structure. Cope settlers (colonists) strive for a
better existence (12th century – cope). This is less
visible.
- Political structure:
Water boards – first democratic organisation.
Waterboards are charged with water
management, and they have to prevent floods.
They guarantee water quality and nowadays
they have to balance the demands of the farmer
(lower water table) and nature organisation
(higher water table).
Cope settlers:
Went to Germany and claimed peat land in Hamburg
(used the same social structure).
PEAT POLDERS:
- Oldest polders
- Starts with reclamation and to protect the land
against (acid) water, a Dijk was built.
The farmers cultivated grains (Rye, Barley, Oats) on the
dewatered peat soil. The country, however declined due
to settling, oxidations and erosion.
 By digging deeper ditches the land became dry
again. But would stop once the land became
lower than the river level.
 1 -1,5 m. per century
 Sea level rise 5-10 cm. per century
Due to the increasing …(?) the cultivation of winter grain
was no longer feasible and increasingly the farmers
switched to animal hos…(?).
CITIES:
 Increasing and expanding
 Holland grew into a city country and had been
consigned in and around the central peat area.
INVASION OF THE SEA:
Subsidence of the surface level of the peat reclamations
makes the land vulnerable to the invasion of the sea:
Since the 12th century they had to deal with massive
storm floods and created large-scale lakes.
 Ongoing peat subsidence finally caused severe
flooding and the formation of large peat lakes in
Holland and Frisia.
The Dutch:
 Adapted to this problem with water
management.
o Numerous measures and innovations
came: Dijking came on vogue, more
ditches, polder mills.
Problem:
 Due to the ongoing land subsidence, it became
increasingly difficult to remove access water and
the danger of flooding increased.
o Better known as THE WATER WOLF
The measures of drainage did not help, and the wetland
turned into the source of economical happiness:
THE NEED FOR PEAT:
- 17th and 18th century
- City life demanded fuel for bakeries, breweries,
and demand for the Dutch Golden Era. There
was a peat hunger. > Ships of peat distributing
the product over several cities by sailing on the
rivers.
DIAGRAM: Showing the processing of peat
1. Started with wet peat dredging (Baggeren) with
a hand drag (Bagger beugel).
2. Placed on land (Legakker) and the peat would be
stamped upon.
3. The stamped on/flattened peat would be cut
into pieces.
4. These pieces/wedges of turf would be taken out
and turned and stapled.
5. The pieces would have to dry by wind.
6. When the peat had dried it would be moved to
the towns.
CONSEQUENCE OF THE PEAT HUNGER:
 Parts of the landscape were turned into water.
o The water was a thread for the existing
land.
LAKE-BED POLDER:
What was left to do was to drain these lakebeds. This
was profitable, since it made up for the shortage of
agricultural land. And in the period of the lake-bed
polders (1540-1960) 95% are found in the Netherlands.
The most famous ones date from the 17 th century.
- Beemster (1612):
The wet peat lakes transformed into agriculture.
In 1607 the beemster company started with the
Dijk and then draining.
o It’s almost like a baroque garden with a
definitive grid. (Cosimo di Medici
admired such landscapes)
o 5 roads and 4 canals.
o The squares are located at the
intersections of the roads.
STUKJE PER ONGELUK DUBBEL GEDAAN…
DESIGNED LANDSCAPE:
A designed landscape is more than the design or layout of the country. It is a
deliberate systematic intervention, focused on spatial quality, shaping and
strive for beauty, …(?), and functionality.
At the start of the reclamations and polders, the practical use was more of an
issue, rather than the aesthetics of lines in the landscapes.
 THE FORM FOLLOWS THE FUNCTION.
 Polders – Part 2:

GOD CREATED THE EARTH, BUT THE DUTCH CREATED

HOLLAND: In the 2nd part will be shown how the largest
artificial islands are designed.

Article Perusal: New Land

- The Zuiderzee is a young island sea
o Around a thousand have formed by
floods and storms
The islands of Schokland and Urk have now been
included into the Noordoostpolder.

NEW LAND was made into the former Zuiderzee:

1. Starting with the drainage and impoldering of
the Wieringermeer in 1930.
 It is not an Ijsselmeer polder but a Zuiderzee
polder, because the Afsluitdijk did not exist
The Article we have read:
before 1930.
- P.8: explaining the tools of the polder.
o Molengang:
Zuiderzee Polder:
A course of two, or more, windmills,
 Wieringermeerpolder
which lift the surplus of water from the
Ijsselmeer Polder:
polder (green part) into the Boezem (the
 Noordoostpolder
blue canal or vaart surrounding the
polder.) Because the polder was quite
The Dijks of the polder were built between 1937 and
low, they had to find this course of
1941. The plan originally included a third polder (The
windmills to overcome the height.
Markerwaardpolder), but ecological and fresh water
o RING KADE/RING DIJK:
retaining issues led to annulling the plans.
It’s a Dijk or embankment surrounding
the lake-bed polder
Now Markerwadden:
o RING KANAAL:
A group of islands as an ecological result.
Also known as the boezem, is a canal
around a lake-bed polder, outside of the
PLANS ON CLOSING THE ZUIDERZEE TO PROTECT LAND
RING DIJK, into which the polder mills or
AND CITIES OF HOLLAND:
pumping stations discharge the surplus
- Hendrik Stevin (1667) – Wiskontich Filosofisch
water. Ultimately part of the boesem
Bedrijf.
system (polderboezem system)
o Plan for dams between the Wadden
 Called a …(?) bemaling:
Islands as protection against the
A system of pumping, in which the water is
Zuiderzee. (creating firstly as safety net
raised from the polder to the boezem in two, or
and secondly arable land)
more, steps.
Between 1667 and 1891 several plans to close the
Zuiderzee and to reclaim the land were published.

1885:
Age Buma founded the Zuiderzeevereniging to research
the reclamation of the Zuiderzee. Lr. Cornelis Lely was
among the researchers.
 Buma was one of the main advocates of
reclamation of the Zuiderzee.

PLAN-LELY (1891): (A treatise)
- Cornelis Lely (-1931):
Under his guidance as chief engineer the soil
and currents were thoroughly researched, and
his results were published in this treatise.
- Afsluitdijk
o Foreshortened the coastline for
protection and cause for the freshwater
basin.
- Did not reclaim the Waddenzee
o The Waddenzee should stay open, due
to unpredictable tides.
- Only the best soil reclaimed (clay)
- Fresh water basin in the core
- Open access to Amsterdam
- In 1925: Added border lakes to drain the
seepage water of the Veluwe.
To convince the Dutch of the necessity of the new land,
it was promoted by the means of food independence.
(The plans were ready, but the governance wasn’t)
 TARGET:
New land for agriculture (Promotion campaign
in WWI)
Between 1914 and 1918 the events which led to
acceptance followed rapidly:
- The Great War:
The fear of food shortage was an issue
- 13th & 14th Jan. 1916:
Fierce windstorms, which led to flooding.
 It took a disaster to accept the plan after more
than 20 years.
1918: DE ZUIDERZEE WET
 Accepted and the work started.
28 May 1932:
REALISATION OF THE AFSLUITDIJK
 Started June 1920 with a trial project.
 June 1927 the real project started
CRITIQUE:
- Jac. P. Thijsse (Father of nature conservation in
the Netherlands):
His critique was that the plan only took hydronic
engineering and general agricultural
considerations into account.
 He pleaded for a beautiful and diverting design.
1929:
Zuiderzee commissie was installed to guard the
character of the new polder.
 Analysed the Beemster Polder as a possible
example of the new polder.
Conclusion:
The clean, geometrical layout with thick planted
roads was appreciated, because it was in
contrast with the messy, older peat polders.
DEC. 1940:
The last gap of ring Dijk of the NOORDOOSTPOLDER was
closed and the drainage of the polder had started.
- 40 000 ha
- 1942 > Dry
o What followed:
 Soil improvement
 Parcellation
 The overall design
- Completed in 1962 (due to the delay, caused by
WWII)
 Planning villages inspires by Central place
theory. (Engineer van der Blom got inspired by
this)
 Emmeloord: A central place in a hexagon, with
in each corner a smaller central place.
WALTER CHRISTALLER:
- German Geographer
- Discovered irregularity in the size of cities, the
distance from each other, and the facilities
o Wondered if this was a coincidence or
whether it was due to economic
considerations.
- 1933:
CENTRAL PLACE THEORY (CPT):
As a way to explain the location, number and
size of settlements, in which these locations
acted as central places that provided services to
surrounding areas.
PLANNING VILLAGES:
- Based on Christaller
- Distance of 7-8 km. between villages
- Based on biking distance of farm hands and
school children (sociographic research)
- Traditional and Modern
o Villages named after medieval
settlements.
o Followed the line of the Delftse school:
Uses almost exclusively brick, steep
rooftiles on steep sloped rows(?)
- Plans:
structured by the roads and canals
Except Nagelen:
 Built according to the principles of HET NIEUWE
BOUWEN, which means Light air and space.
NOORDOOSTPOLDER:
 Example of END-IMAGE PLANNING:
More attention was given to social,
demographic, and countryside planning.
PRIME OBJECTIVE:
 A productive, agrarian landscape with the aim of
self-sufficiency in food production.
It is a highly designed construct with Emmeloord
at its centre. The heart of the polder was open
spaced, woodlands took only place on land that
was unsuitable for agriculture. Village woods are
recreational, but also offer protection from the
wind.
PLANTS:
Parcellation, water management, infrastructure, and
village planning were all fixated. The planting plants had
to introduce the human scale…
PIETER VERHAGEN:
- Most important advisor on the planting plan.
- As a starting point he took the notion that
farmers shaped the landscape.
o But in the polders, the farmers were not
yet present, so the designer must bear
the responsibility for this design, in
name of the future farmers.
DESIGN BY BIJHOWER, VERHAGEN AND GRANPRÉ
MOLIERE:
- Planting commission 1942-1949
- The basic Ideas:
o Rhythm
o The human scale
o Clear articulation of the landscape
- The design sought to use the immense space
and Bijhouwer prepares a landscape plan that
acted with the parcellation.
- Compressed space (human scale, foreseeable
space)
- Connecting villages with a green corridor
- Clusters of farms in open farmland
- Forest on bad soils
- Include fruit cultivation embedded in the green
structure
FARMS OF THE NOORDOOSTPOLDER:
- House of brick, farm barnes of prefab concrete
- Groups/hamlets of 2-3-4 farms and
labourers’cottage
o Provided a social construct
- Delftse school (Granpré Molière, ‘Beaty in
simplicity’)
- The Dutch state was the owner of the polder
and of the farms.
o The soil determined what kind of farm
was founded
o At the start all the farmers were
tenants:
Before you could rent a farm, a selection
commissie would visit the tenant farmer
to be. Looking at the agricultural
knowledge, but also at the morals of the
family.
THE FLEVOPOLDERS:
- Two separate polders
o Oostelijk Flevoland (1950-1957)
o Zuidelijk Flevoland (1959-1968)
- Largest artificial island of the world.
 The urbanisation in Nort and South Holland
speeded up after WWII extra(new) land was
needed for housing, recreation, and farming.
Ch.A.P. Takens:
- Sociography
- Emphasises on the importance of the two
polders as an overflow for the crowded
Randstad, with in specific Amsterdam
 Drew up a course plan (Partly on the basis of
Christaller’s theory).
Study for the newly established centres in the new
polder in The Netherlands:
This gives a good example of the application of
Christaller’s method in Urban planning
PARCELLATION PLAN OOSTELIJK FLEVOLAND 1956:
 Target: A more functional polder
- Living (Housing), Businesses, agriculture,
horticulture, recreation.
- Original plan 1954:
Had a main city, Lelystad. A main village, Dronte,
and the smaller villages.
o This due to the rapidly changing ideas
on facilities and mobilities.
(Car and train became accessible to
everybody and it was not needed to
have so many villages).
ZUIDELIJK FLEVOLAND:
 The polder was drained between 1959 and 1968
 Half of the polder is used for agriculture, nature
and housing.
Divided and concentrated functions:
- Living Almers
- Industry
- Agriculture
- Nature: Oostvaardersplassen
- Forest: Horsterwold
Question: How is the spatial balance kept?
Urban usage overruns(?) the agrarian landscape. The
proximity of Amsterdam and the Randstad lead to a
growth in the demand of housing and are becoming
highly unaffordable and therefore the housing is
expanded in Almere.
NIEUW LAND NATIONAL PARK:
- Offers relief to the overcrowded Randstad
- Masterplan by Mecanoo
 Aim:
To develop a robust and resilient ecosystem,
with key nature reserves (Oostvaardersplassen,
Marker wadden). Those will be enlarged and the
connections between them will be
strengthened. Adding islands, marshlands,
creeks, grasslands and water connections > they
will create a continuous ecosystem.
The ridged grid of the Noordoostpolder of the 1930s and
the development of the nature of the Nieuw Land
National Park look different, but both thank their
existence to the drawing table of an architect.
 production, such as the current-day piedmont
region.

Polders – Part 2: 19th century land

reclamation.  THE COLONIES OF BENEVOLENCE:
At the colonies of benevolence not only the
This part is about two examples of land reclamation land, but also the Man was to be cultivated.
where the transformation of land and people is the key o HISTORICAL CONTEXT:
subject. The 19th century started out poorly and
the Netherlands were also bankrupt
In the Netherlands people will exert lots of energy to after Napoleon. The economic situation
keep the land/soil dry (and away from flooding by the was bad, and the grain trade collapsed.
rivers and sea). THE ENLIGHTENMENT produced a new
way of thinking and acting. A more
 THE PADDIES (OR RICE FIELDS) OF VERCELLI – social response towards society and
ITALY Man. Then the United Kingdom of the
o Problem: Netherlands was established and after
an independent revolution in 1830
The lack of sweet water.
Belgium and Luxembourg stood on their
o Solution:
own.
The fields are artificially flooded in
o EARLY INITIATIVES FOR THE POOR IN
spring. > turning into a reflecting mirror
THE CITY:
landscape, due to the water.
 1810:
o THE CANAL:
Charles Francois Lebrun
In the 1840s Francesco Rosi developed a
transferred 800 orphans from
scheme for a canal that would link the
Amsterdam to families in rural
po(?) with the river. And under the
areas and to the textile industry
patronage of Cavour the scheme was
in Twente. > Also an aspect of
modified in the 1850s by Carlo …(?) and
cheap labour forces.
the canal was built between 1863 and
 THE COLONIES OF BENEVOLENCE.
1866, which was quite fast.
 The canal became one of the symbols of the
The initiative of the society of Benevolence lies with:
New Italy and it succeeded in irrigating thirteen
- General Johannes van den Bosch (1780-1844):
hundred thousand acres of agricultural land that
 FOCUS:
was principally used for the cultivation of rice.
His focus was the training of suitable and
THE CANAL CAVOUR made it possible to irrigate
selected poor people.
the land of Vercelli, where rice cultivation was
o The influence of THE ENLIGHTENMENT
hindered by the dry summers.
is unmistakeable: He took care of the
poor by job creation, but also by training
- Count Camillo Benso di Cavour (1810-1861)
and education.
o Made the change mid-19th century
 THE IDEA:
possible.
Every human being can become a good citizen,
o Known in his role as the creator of the
provided, he is given proper training and
modern Italian nation.
guidance
o As an estate owner, Cavour was an
advocate to the Piedmont agriculture.
According to the initiators it was the solution to the
He possessed several farms and land
poverty issue. A win-win situation so to say:
(just as Vercelli).
1. The agricultural cultivation of the undeveloped
grounds.
RICE CULTIVATION:
2. Cities were freed of beggars.
- Started at the 15th century in Lombardy (Italy).
3. Increased domestical agricultural production.
After Lombardy, rice farming rapidly grew in
WHERE:
At the end of the 19th century these colonies were
situated in Drenthe, Overijssel and in the Belgium
Kempen.
 IT WAS TO TURN THE WILDERNESS INTO PROFIT.
THERE WERE 2 TYPES OF COLONIES:
1. FREE:
The free colonies were populated with voluntary
inhabitants.
a. I: Frederiksoord (1818-1820) - Trial
Colony – the first cultivation
b. II: Wilhelminaoord (1821-1823) –
Expansion with facilities and care
c. III: Willemsoord (1820-1822) – Ideal
model of the free Colony
2. UNFREE:
Populated with beggars, small time criminals
and involuntary people who were picked up on
public accusations and were shipped off to the
colonies.
a. IV: Ommerschans (1819) - first unfree
Colony
b. Kolonie V: Wortel (1822) – First free -/
later unfree
c. Kolonie VI: Veenhuizen (1823) – Most
ambitious and large-scale approach
d. Kolonie VII: Merksplas (1825) - First
unfree / Monumental State Ensemble
2 BASIC PATTERNS UNDERLYING THE SPATIAL DESIGN OF
THE COLONIES:
1. The pattern of long ribbons with small farms are
mostly near the free colonies.
2. The pattern of a central asylum surrounded by
large farm(s?) is mostly near the unfree colonies.
 Each colony has its own interpretation, based on
the basic pattern, inspired by the local
circumstances.
Map of the trial colony Frederiksoord 1818:
- The first colony and a free one.
- Recognisable is the pattern of long ribbons with
small farms, near the free colonies.
Farmhouses are built(?)
There was a selection of colonists under the poor and
this selection was made by the municipalities. This was
voluntary; however, the people were not allowed to
leave without permission.
Classifications included:
- You had to be a healthy man/woman under 40
- Had to have at least two children (a healthy boy
and girl)
- Good moral behaviour and health
- Church attendance was mandatory
If you were to pass, you would be provided with a house
and a starting capital.
UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE:
https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1555/
 The nomination helps to maintain the cultural
heritage and attracts an international audience now,
and in the future.
 FREDERIKSOORD (Free):
o 1800-1825:
The colony developed
o Due to the unfertile soil, the poplar
trees died around 1900 and oaks and
beaches replaced them.
o First people were given 3 ha. but later
on, 5 ha.
 Still found in Frederiksoord are the row of trees
and the geometrical layout (still very
recognizable)
 VEENHUIZEN (Unfree):
o Three collective institutions with colony
farms for beggars and so on…
o Started as a partially populated area
(1800).
o The raised bog was divided into plots
and drained by a system of ditches and
the colony farm. Planted oak trees were
next to the canals.
 (By now it is the state prison and the prison
museum)
INTERVENTION OF MAN:
In this lecture the intervention of Man is clear. The
reclamation of the peat in the 19th century led to peat polders.
Lakes were created when Man excavated the peat. The need
for agricultural ground and the threat of the water wolf led to
lake-bed polders. The same underlying reasons to drain the
Zuiderzee. The first Ijsselmeer polders were mainly an
agricultural area to prevent the shortage of food, today an
extra layer is added. Today we need space to develop nature,
like the marker wadden. This new nature is designed.