Lines extending into the distance, wide expanses and an uncluttered horizon are typical of the polder landscape of the Netherlands. These aesthetic qualities sprang from an ever-changing balance between developments in water management and agriculture.

Parcellation
The polder landscape has been evolving since the ninth century. The Western part of the Netherlands was at that time inaccessible marshland and sea. Colonists dug ditches and channels in order to drain the water from the uppermost layer of peat. The resulting land was used to cultivate crops. From the 11th century, this reclamation was tackled systematically by issuing parcels with a standard size creating the rational parcellation of land in the lowlands of Holland.

Experiments
In the 16th century it became technically feasible to reclaim large expanses of water in a single operation. These poldering projects were a technological and architectonic development of the early peatland polders. The empty landscape that resulted provided a blank canvas for experimentation in urban planning and landscape architecture.

Optimum
The Beemster (1608-1612) is the first large-scale and the most famous polder. Here rational parcellation became an all-powerful ideal. The same layout principles can be found in all subsequent polders, though applied less rigidly. The objective with every polder was an optimum configuration of the water system, the subdivision of land, the road system and the settlement pattern. Friction between the irregular form of the land and the ideal agricultural and urban landscape was inevitable.

Mastenbroek Polder (1364)

Beemster (1608 - 1612)

Borsselepolder (1616)