To browse Academia. Climate change brings larger and more frequent rainstorms and Dutch cities are confronted with water nuisance. The urban water systems are unable to deal with this change in the hydrological cycle in spite of the fact that the Dutch are dealing with this condition for centuries. The question is: What is the tradition of building in wet and soft soil conditions? There is a lack of systematic research into this matter and a base for future development is missing.
This research fills this gap for the tasks in the polder. A framework of seven phases offers insight into the relation between the landscape, the available technology and urbanization per phase.
The method of building-site preparation is crucial in the wa But, the more civil engineers could solve, the less water management became a spatial task. This cumulative development can be ordered in six phases that are characterizes by a specific relation between design and technology of polder cities: acceptation , defensive , offensive , early manipulative , manipulative and adaptive manipulative today. In the current situation wherein the change of the climate causes flooding in polder cities, the solely technical approach is insufficient.
Reintroducing the fine tradition, the spatial approach and a larger acceptation, is required. Our heritage gives evidence of the Dutch talent with regard to the design and construction of water. This research must give a representative idea of historical, current and future relat The study of urban form in the Netherlands has been heavily infuenced by the Modern Movement and characterized by strong disciplinary specialization.
On the one hand there is the distinction between art and engineering and on the other the search for instrumental universal rationality. This helps to explain the increasing interest, initially within academe, in the frst English and German translations of some outstanding works of Italian researchers, who were at the time already acting as leaders in new perspectives in the felds of urban form and architecture.
