Rotterdam – Land Reclamation and New Nature

Without its dikes, Rotterdam would be underwater.  This city and its surrounding area in the Rhine-Maas-Scheldt Delta at the North Sea have been reclaimed from the sea, which in some places is six metres higher than the terrain itself. These flood control measures were carried out, among other things, in order to gain additional agricultural fields and industrial areas.  In the urban Nieuwe Maas River (a main branch of the Rhine) Europe's largest seaport was also built, which stretches from the centre of the city, with its old harbour, to the modern facilities at the river’s confluence with the North Sea. Today Rotterdam presents itself as a cultural city with modern architecture, including a skyline.  Due to the high population density it is no longer easy to delineate where exactly where the city ends and the countryside begins.  Green belts are therefore of exceptional importance for both humans and nature.  Their preservation as well as their expansion and modification will increase the quality of life for residents and improve the spatial separation between expanding settlement areas.

The awareness that one lives in a self-made, i.e. highly cultivated, landscape is deeply rooted in the Netherlands and has a strong influence on the relationship people have with nature.  This cannot only be managed in the classical sense but must also be progressively developed.  And thus the government has addressed the decline of flora and fauna as well as the increased need for recreation in a natural environment with, for example, the establishment of nature development areas within an integrated system.  The design of these areas, some of which have been purchased specifically for this reason, is less oriented on historic ecosystems as on modern approaches that allow for the creation of a ‘new nature’ on open space areas developed from cultivated land.

Within the framework of the Hortus conclusus workshop organized by the urban community AIR, open space concepts that included the participation of local residents were developed.  One of our most important interventions at the Valkeniersweide Park was the creation of a multifunctional island in an existing water course in the tradition of land reclamation.