Reclamation of Land
The centuries-long process of reclamation and poldering definitely led to the ambition by engineers to requisition the Zuiderzee (South Sea) as land. A 1891 report by the engineer Cornelis Lely was decisive in the decision-making to actually take on the Zuiderzee Works.

Urban planning
The Wieringermeer was the first polder to be drained after the passing of the Zuiderzee Act by parliament in 1918. The first land parcellation plan (1926) by the Dienst der Zuiderzeewerken (the Zuiderzee Works Department) concentrated on hydraulic aspects of the poldering and an optimum parcellation. At that time, urban planning was a field on the rise, and the "Netherlands Institute for Housing and Town Planning" (NIVS) regarded the organization of the IJsselmeer polders as one of its most important planning tasks.

Village design
High on their agenda was the creation of a liveable, attractive and exciting landscape that matched the scale and character of the new land. After months of lobbying by the NIVS, the architect and urban planner M.J. Granpré Molière was appointed in 1927 as the Department's aesthetic adviser. He attended to the streamlining of a number of polder roadways and designed the villages of Middenmeer, Slootdorp and Wieringerwerf. The landscape-related organization of the polder was designed last and primarily served agricultural demands.

Theme The Big Challenge

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