Series of columns: How do you see the future of the Dutch polder landscape?

2 - Adieu Polder City

Zef Hemel (Deputy Director of the Dienst Ruimtelijke Ordening Amsterdam)

During my daily train ride from Rotterdam to Amsterdam I invariably take a window seat. Each time, as we leave Schiedam and the train heads towards the empty, open space of Midden Delfland, the broad silhouette of the city on the Maas opens up on the horizon behind me within an instant: to the left the high-rise buildings on the Weena, in the middle the Euromast and to the extreme right the three towers on the Marconiplein.

Due to its breadth this frayed, gossamer silhouette appears remarkably Dutch, for the polder is deep and the city is low-lying. But as train picks up speed Rotterdam disappears prematurely from view. It is as if I am in a speedboat surrounded by an expanse of water and I am witness to the sudden sinking of a bustling metropolis.

This dramatic scene comes to an abrupt end with the appearance of the odd copses near Delft, which in an instant disrupt the old magic of the polder landscape. It was a splendid decision taken long ago to keep Midden Delfland free from building, thus maintaining a distance between Delft and Schiedam. However, the manner with which this spacious landscape was later filled in was terribly shortsighted.

The distinctive polder landscape is disappearing all around us. In this respect Zuid-Holland takes first prize, as its small cities and towns have swallowed up the entire polder in less than ten years. It is incomprehensible that villages such as Nootdorp, Pijnacker, Bergschenhoek and Berkel & Rodenrijs have been allowed to grow unchecked in the zone between Rotterdam and The Hague. The result is an amorphous sea of houses, a meaningless "network city" that stretches from the North Sea to the Hoeksche Waard.

The worst offender is Gouda, which has received permission to build 4,000 homes in a polder lying almost 7 meters below sea level. It proves the bankruptcy of the planning regulations and the death of the civilizing drive begun some hundred years ago by men such Thijsse, Wibaut and Hudig. Adieu Polder City. We await the waves that are sure to engulf us.

Zef Hemel