Joel Jassu_LAND+WATER+CITY

LAND WATER CITY AN INVESTIGATIVE APPROACH FOR FRAMING URBAN DESIGN SOLUTIONS: A CASE STUDY ON MANHATTAN, AMSTERDAM AND ATLANTA.

joel jassu

// Georgia Institute of Technology // July. 2020

How can understanding geomorphology and hydrology create a framework for urban design solutions?

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract 04 Definitions 05 Introduction 07 Methodology 14 Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape 18 Final Reflections 72 Bibliography 80

Table of Contents | 3

ABSTRACT Geomorphology (land) and hydrology (water) play a vital role in shaping the urban form (city) of many cities that have been designed around the world. Oftentimes, elements such as landforms and water are ignored and not put into consideration to frame urban design and planning proposals. Through this research project we see that a method of investigation that focuses on mapping both geomorphological and hydrological patterns could shape an approach for framing urban design proposals to retrofit the modern city. Three cities with drastically diverse sites have been selected to help study the interaction between geomorphology, hydrology, and urban form. Manhattan which is an island in New York City is used as an example of how a city’s urban form can emerge without any regard to its physical features or water flow patterns. Amsterdam located in the lowlands of the Rhine River is the main subject of research.

It provides a great example of how urban form can emerge directly from geomorphology and water flow patterns. What was once an agricultural landscape provided a framework for streets, blocks and parcels for the modern Dutch city. The third city is Atlanta. Located much higher above sea level (at the foot hills of the Appalachian Mountains), is used as an example of how the mapping and investigation techniques used to understand the Dutch landscape can be applied in a drastically different context. The drawing method used to examine the Dutch landscape can provide a framework for urban design solutions that directly derives from a clear investigation of geomorphology and hydrology. It is clear that a proper and simple method of investigating land and water flow patterns and their interaction with the city can produce widely unique and meaningful solutions for both current and future urban design problems.

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DEFINITIONS 1. Urban Morphology: Urban morphology is the study of human settlements and the process of their formation and transformation. The study seeks to understand the spatial structure and character of a metropolitan area, city, town or village by examining the patterns of its component parts, ownership and occupation. Typically, analysis of physical form focuses on buildings, streets, lots and block patterns. Analysis of specific settlements is often undertaken using cartographic sources and the process of development is deduced from comparison of historic maps.

2. Urban Form: A three-part nested hierarchy of permanences within on-going processes of change. These include;

- How the territory is organized (subdivided) into public and private domains.

- How the public domain (streets, public places, boundaries, monuments) are arranged and designed.

- How the private domain (buildings and gardens) are arranged and designed.

3. Weirs: A low dam built across a river to raise the level of water upstream or regulate its flow.

Definitions | 5

4. Geomorphology: The landforms and the processes that shape it (basically air, water and ice) including both natural processes, catastrophic events like earthquakes, prior urbanization and climate change as reflected in topography, soils, vegetation, wildlife and water courses. Geomorphologists seek to understand why landscapes look the way they do.

Through a combination of field observations, physical experiments and numerical modeling, geomorphologists understand landform history and dynamics which aid to predict changes.

5. Landform: A natural or artificial feature of the solid surface of the earth. Landforms together make up a given terrain. Their arrangement in the landscape is known as topography. Typical landforms include hills, mountains, plateaus, canyons, and valleys, as well as shoreline features such as bays, peninsulas, and seas. This includes submerged features such as mid-ocean ridges, volcanoes, and the great ocean basins.

6. Hydrology: The branch of science concerned with properties of the earth’s water specifically its movement in relation to land.

7. Pre-Urban Morphology: The primitive or agricultural footprints of native peoples. These include paths, wagon roads, land ownership and property enclosures 8. Peat Polder: Wet spongy ground of decomposing vegetation.

9. Polder: A piece of low-lying land reclaimed from the sea or river and is protected by dikes.

10. Dike: A dike is a barrier used to regulate or hold back water from a river, lake and ocean.

11. Delta: Wetlands that form as rivers empty their water and sediment into another body of water, such as an ocean, lake, or another river.

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INTRODUCTION Urban design and planning projects often struggle to find a clear starting point to frame solutions that directly relate to both the geomorphology and hydrology. This research proposal focuses on finding ways to understand and document landforms and water patterns by utilizing simple tools of representation. A technique to document and investigate the transformation of landscapes was derived and applied to frame a new urban design approach by developing a series of research diagrams.

Urban design interfaces with water and landforms at any given scale, yet a simple investigative method has not been developed to help articulate the interaction between geomorphology, hydrology and the city. Scholars from TU Delft in the Netherlands have researched and documented the challenges of the Dutch landscape and the impacts caused by climate change.

As a result, much has been written about the Dutch landscape and its interaction with water and urban transformation. Dutch scholars like Clemens Steenbergen and Wouter Reh have created extensive documentation of the Dutch landscape. Scholarly research from the Netherlands has a clear approach to the natural landscape but little of that research has been applied elsewhere around the world.

Introduction | 7

The TU Delft research on the Dutch landscape provides the background for research and experiments to visualize the relationships of land, water and city that can be applied in other places with different land forms and water situations.

Now more than ever because of climate change, urban designers require quick and fast investigative methods that help them explore larger environmental and infrastructure issues beyond their given sites. By understanding the evolution of landforms and water flow patterns in relation to urban form, urban designers will better frame their solutions to respond to larger even issues. This understanding will situate the proposed concepts within a larger framework of the environment to reveal how both must work together to shape the cities that we live in.

Manhattan Island, New York City: As It Might Have Been Thanks to the work of Eric Sanderson in the Mannahatta Project which took him nearly 10 years to complete, the Island of Manhattan presents a unique opportunity to consider the past and the present and imagine what might have been. The Mannahatta Project, Mannahatta meaning the land of rolling hills in Linne Linape, aims to recreate the ecological landscape as it existed when Henry Hudson sailed past in September 12, 1609, on what he thought was a passage to Asia. He claimed the territory and named it New Netherlands, which the Dutch settled on a few years later founding New Amsterdam, later named the British New York after the revolution. Finally it is what we now know as the “Greatest Grid” of the Commissioner’s Plan of 1811. Sanderson’s starting point was the British Headquarters Map that was “created by the British military in 1782 when they controlled New York City during the American Revolution.”1 The 1660 Dutch settlement map by the Dutch Surveyor General Jacques Cortel records about 15 roads and nearly 300 houses. It consisted of a constructed harbor, fort and internal canal. The fort was a simple grid of streets and the canal served as a way to supply goods to the interior of the settlement.

1.

Sanderson, Dr. Eric. “The Welikia Project “ How It All Began.” The Welikia (“Way-LEE-Kee-Uh”) Project, 2008, welikia.org/about/how-it-all-began/.

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During the New York expansion of 1770 the Dutch pattern of blocks and streets continued although it became more orthogonal due to the British take over by they were interested in finding the best way of selling and leasing property tracks. The Casmir Goerck Plan of the common lands in 1785 subdivided the entire landscape into equal farm lots with a single central street running through the entire island. Although a later 1795 revised plan was never adopted by the City Council, it was pivotal in laying a foundation for the 1811 commissioner’s plan..

The New York City commission appointed John Randel Junior, who at the time was only 20 years old, to be the chief engineer and Surveyor for the 1811 commissioners’ plan for Manhattan.

Junior began his tasks in 1808 by conducting a detailed survey of the island. His work laid a foundation for the strict grid plan of lots, blocks and streets. This rigid plan, commonly known as the “Manhattan Grid”, has created a development framework for Manhattan for over 200 years The 1811 commissioners’ plan for Manhattan intended to provide order for development including the sale and development of real estate both within the core city and in the common lands. According to the plan documents, “A city is to be composed principally of the habitations of men and straight-sided and right-angled houses are the most cheap to build and the most convenient to live in.”1 The desire to create some sort of order within the city transformed New York as one of the greatest planned American cities in the 21st-century with the famous Manhattan grid. The 1811 plan superimposed a grid on the island without any regard to its geological formation. As development continued to increase, the hilly landscape was graded to open up streets and divide the land in the most efficient way possible in order to make it conducive for real development and sale of property.

The rock outcroppings in Central Park give us a glimpse of how the geomorphology of this landscape would have looked prior to its urbanization. The sheer and abrupt difference within the landscape of Central Park and the high-rises in midtown Manhattan is a combination of two landscapes that are seeking to provide a habitat for both human beings as well as other species.

1.

Museum of the City of New York. “The Greatest Grid.” The 1811 Plan, 2015, thegreatestgrid. mcny.org/greatest-grid/the-1811-plan.

Introduction| 9

The British Headquarters Map that was made 170 years after Henry Hudson’s arrival during the American revolution provides an amazing depiction of the rolling hills and natural landscape features that Manhattan once had. This map was made specifically for military reasons and depicts civil infrastructure such as roads and fortifications. It also maps features of ecological interest like the hills, mashes, streams, and meadows. “At the end of the American revolution, where Times Square is currently located was where two major streams of water merged to finally find their way into the Hudson river.”1 This is a significant deviation from what the geomorphology and hydrological formation of Manhattan was then compared to now.

A landscape that once had over 55 ecosystem types is now one of the most densely populated with some of the tallest buildings in the world and also inhabited by over 1.6 million people. In order to frame how biologically diverse this landscape was, “On a per acre basis, Mannahatta had more ecological communities than Yosemite and Yellowstone.”1 It was truly a landscape that was capable of sustaining and supporting an extraordinary biodiversity more than many landscapes throughout the United States. “It was also home for over 85 fish species, heath hens, beavers (that thrived off of all the streams, aspens, alders and willows), black bears, bobcats, bob turtles and home to the Native Americans who had inhabited this landscape for thousands of years before the arrival of Henry Hudson in 1609.”1 Eric Sanderson performed a critical survey of Manhattan and reconstructed a digital model of Mannahatta and what it would have looked like in 1609 in comparison to the present day city which revealed the transformation of this city over time. It appears that Manhattan’s urban grid disregarded the geomorphology and hydrology of this diverse and terraneous landscape. If Manhattan was planned differently, perhaps it would have been deemed one of the greatest grids to respond to its geomorphology and hydrology, with very modest modifications.

1.

Sanderson, Eric. “New York -- before the City.” TED, July 2009, www.ted.com/talks/eric_ sanderson_new_york_before_the_city?language=en.

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The 1782 British Headquarters Map

The 1811 Commissioner’s Plan of Manhattan

The 1865 Historic Map of Manhattan

Digitally Reconstructed 1609 map of Manhattan by Dr. Eric Sanderson Research Question: How does Manhattan’s urban form respond to the geomorphology and hydrological patterns that once existed on the island?

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2 miles

Methodology: Base maps adopted from the Mannahatta Project Website.

Conclusion: Manhattan urban form does not respond to both it’s geomorphology and historic hydrological patterns.

Introduction| 11

Imagine, the streets of Manhattan curving around the hillside and piercing through the blocks in unison with the preexisting topographic conditions. The green streets intersecting with the east west boulevards with stream beds in between. This would have been a wonderful addition to the foundation of Manhattan’s urban formation.

Project Significance: What Is The Problem?

A complete departure from urban design solutions that respond to hydrology and geomorphology, like in the case of Manhattan, can result in irreversible urban conditions.

Adapting to issues such as sea level rise becomes difficult to achieve without simultaneously demolishing large portions of the city. Real estate and capital constraint also prove an added challenge. Atlanta, on a smaller scale than New York City, is also an example of a city whose morphology does not reflect its natural formation. Atlanta was once covered with many creeks and streams that are now buried. A brief investigation of Manhattan as an island that completely ignored the nature of its land form and hydrological patterns is evidence of the problem at hand - Urban form does not usually derive from a clear understanding of geomorphology and hydrology even though it ought to. In a brief investigation of Manhattan, it was found that the island completely ignored the nature of its original land formation and hydrological patterns. The evidence of this poses a problem. Urban formation should derive from a clear understanding of both geomorphology and hydrology but unfortunately this is not always the case.

Dr. Sanderson’s work is a great example of how you can reconstruct a landscape and discover its past formation, as well as its current urban form. The methods and investigation approach he used to understand the ecology of Manhattan took him ten years. The resources and collaboration of experts used to investigate The British Headquarters map as well as other documents, in this study proved to be a lengthy process. This process can pose a challenge depending on the project. Each project will vary in size, project budget, schedules and limitations within the professional practice.

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The investigative method used to understand the Dutch landscape and its evolution, specifically Amsterdam, helps us formulate a new method of research and representation. This hand drawing technique highlights geomorphology and hydrological transformations of Amsterdam. Lessons learned from this process can be applied to help us investigate and document other cities which will help urban designers and planners frame better design solutions.

Introduction| 13

METHODOLOGY Drawings can be a fundamental means of research and visualization to help us see the relationship between natural patterns and urban form by selecting specific drawings and techniques as a way to investigate the geomorphological and hydrological patterns of regions, metropolitan areas and cities. Clemens Steenbergen in “Composing Landscapes: Analysis, Typology and Experiments for Design” presents an extensive typology of possible approaches to working with different sites and understanding landscapes. He provides more than three hundred landscape designs from several cities around the world and systematically presents the methods that underpin the processes involved in reading those landscapes. His extensive body of work in this area has greatly inspired the investigative approach in this research project. Although Clemens Steenbergen’s work in “Composing Landscapes” is exceptionally done, it still relies heavily on sophisticated digital tools that may not be easily accessible. It is for this reason that I chose a hand drawing approach in this project.

Hand drawing techniques are quicker and easier to navigate compared to digital tools like Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping. A challenge that I found in my research is how to identify the top elements that will support specific research questions. With the vast amount of data provided by GIS software, it can result in an overwhelming amount of information rather than providing clarity and insight to answering the question at hand.

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Due to the tedious nature of drawing by hand, it forces the researcher to premeditate each line drawn and envision how it will support the larger research question. The most important details are drawn in relation to the question.

There are three drawing types that were used in the research process. These drawings helped to verify assumptions, make new discoveries, as well as answer questions related to the research topic. The drawing process involved the following techniques of representation:

1. Copying (Reproduction): This drawing type allows you to mirror what you see and discover how a landscape was understood by previous scholars. It facilitates careful observation which trains the eye to see things that it had not seen before. As a result, the landscapes that were investigated became very familiar making the analysis easier and faster

2. Analytical (Abstract qualities): This drawing type follows copying. You must understand the original drawing to then examine the form of the landscape from a perspective that is not focused on depicting exactly what is seen. It is from these abstract qualities that conclusions were made to answer specific research questions.

3. Experiential (Experimental): This drawing type is used to depict what a frozen moment in time was and how it may have felt. This type helps express new ideas or solutions that are derived from the study of land, water and its interactions with urban form.

The drawing techniques listed above were practiced and portrayed in my research by using the following tools:

- To aid in visual clarity the drawing techniques emphasized three line weights: 0.05, 0.20, and 1.0. These weights take a minimalist approach for visual hierarchy.

- Dots were used to depict terrain and blue lines were used to depict water flow patterns.

- Each drawing was scanned and lightly post processed in Adobe Photoshop and the visual presentation was formatted in Adobe Indesign.

Methodology| 15

These drawing techniques each emphasize a different aspect within the research project at large. This series of nearly forty hand drawn diagrams all come together to tell one story which highlights the transformation of Amsterdam. The lessons learned from this method of investigation are able to be applied to other cities, like Atlanta, that bring about new ways to deliver urban design proposals.

Now, I would like to focus on the region of Amsterdam by researching its expansion over a length of time. I will examine how agriculture and reclamation technology impact water flow patterns and explore how the interaction of both land and water resulted in the transformation of Amsterdam.

Finally, I will imagine how another project could be developed by using the three drawing types to reimagine how the City of Atlanta might be retrofitted for the future.

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Copying/Reproduction

Analytical

Experimental/Experiential Methodology| 17

AMSTERDAM AND THE DUTCH LANDSCAPE

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A WATER CENTRIC APPROACH Amsterdam The Dutch landscape gives us a great opportunity to see how urban form can directly derive from the existing geomorphology and hydrology patterns. From a predominantly reclaimed agricultural landscape, Amsterdam emerges with an urban form that is very indicative of the agricultural parcellation and land management methods that pre-existed before the modern city.

The three part study of land, water and city explores the formation of the Dutch landscape by critically looking at the natural land transformation over time by both natural and artificial processes. First, I will investigate the Dutch landscape to provide an understanding of the different land components which will make up the Dutch delta. This investigation allows us to see that geomorphological transformations have a direct impact on hydrological flows within the delta. Second, the research examines a previously inhabitable landscape which transformed into an agricultural landscape. This land was stamped with various types of human technology used for land management and reclamation. Due to the advancements in land reclamation technologies, individual farmers developed a rectangular land parcellation method that allowed them to easily drain the parcel. The peat polder parcellation designed as a land management tool then forms the basis for the Dutch urban formation and city planning.

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 19

The final investigation focuses on understanding Amsterdam’s response to both geological and hydrological constraints through a critical documentation of the city’s urban transformation overtime. This transformation can also be examined by looking at the Vondelpark area which takes its form from prior agricultural parcels.

By tracking Amsterdam’s transformation, we see an interplay between land, water and city all working together to create the Dutch modern city. It is very clear that Amsterdam’s urban form had to respond to hydrology and geomorphology in order for the city to coexist within the constraints of the swampy and once inhabitable site.

The Dutch delta along with its rivers and behavior of sedimentation form the basic foundation of understanding the Dutch landscape. Historic coastal land formation processes also play a big part in the ecological processes of this landscape. Understanding historic, natural and manmade conditions is important in framing our knowledge on how to read, interpret and see the relations between the pre-urban peat polder landscape and the current modern urban form. Join me on a historic journey that will explore how Dutch agricultural landscape formed the foundation of it’s modern urban morphology. Both historic and key ecological transformations will be used to understand the following four major transformations: topographic, spatial, technological and cultural reflections. These transformations will focus particularly on the city of Amsterdam and the Vondelpark area.

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LAND : FORMATION OF THE DUTCH LOWLANDS

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 21

The Rhine River Drainage Basin The Rhine River drainage basin is essential in understanding the location of the Netherlands.

Rivers consist of three main zones: the headwaters, the mid-waters and the lowlands or delta.

The headwaters are typically where the river begins with a series of other small rivers feeding into it. In this zone there is very little soil deposits due to high velocity of the river caused by the steep slopes. As a result, the material washed away exceeds the amount of soil deposited. The mid waters present a unique situation where the amount of soil that is washed away is close to the amount of soil deposited. The river is not moving as fast as it does in the headwaters but transports a lot of material picked up by the headwaters. The volume of water is typically high making the river channel wider than it would have been at the headwaters. The low reaches of the Rhine River is a place of deposition for all the material picked up by the river and its tributaries from the headwaters and midwaters. In this particular zone the sedimentation is greater than erosion making the river move extremely slowly, creating fragmentations or meanders as the river pours its water to the final destination. The Netherlands is located in the lowlands of the Rhine River. Its location plays a significant role in understanding how this landscape has been shaped by the North Sea and the Rhine River.

Formation of the Dutch Lowlands.

Due to the last Ice Age that happened about 10,000 years ago, the climate warmed up and the ice caps melted. The melted ice led to sea-level rise moving the coastlines much higher than they were previously. About 5000 B.C.E, the water basins between England and Netherlands filled up with water forming the North Sea. The North Sea forms the largest water edge in western Europe with the Dutch landscape nested on the eastern edge. The current coastline in Holland was created from a series of beach ridges that were wiped up by the wind as well as the rising sea levels during the Ice Age. The remaining beach ridges can be seen from the truncated rock outcrops on the Dutch coastline. The shaping of the Dutch coastline by fluctuating sea levels played a significant role in creating the peat bog landscape much of which has been reclaimed today. As the sea levels began to recede, the land began to appear above sea level producing the marshy landscape in lowlands of the delta.

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The peat/marshy landscape in the delta was also formed as a combination of dead plant layers.

Plants began to decay because there was no freshwater or nutrient-rich soils due to coastal erosion fueled by fluctuating sea levels. One of the main ways that the North Sea shapes the Dutch delta is understood by critically examining the behavior of ocean currents. The Dutch coastline follows a curvilinear shape with a concave arc reflecting the imbalance between erosion and sedimentation because the ocean currents that flow in the North-Eastern direction. The combination of the sediments and currents from the sea along with the behavior of the lowlands of the Rhine River created a playground for a unique yet challenging landscape.

The Dutch landscape was created by dynamic forces of water and soil composition. Water from the North Sea and delta rivers (Rhine, Meuse, Schelde and IJssel ) was the most important creative energy behind the patterns of sand, clay and the peat bogs. Many scholars like Clemens M. Steenbergen, Inge Bobbink, Bert van den Heuvel and Saskia de Wit of the Dutch peat polder landscape would generally agree that there are mainly three environmental forces that are responsible for the formation of the Dutch landscape. These include:

1. The sea which with its large masses of water proved to be the most dynamic and powerful. The sedimentation created by the sea on its edges created the coastal landscape characterized by low lands and beach ridges. “Throughout the last 10,000 years, the geological development of the Netherlands has largely been determined by a rise in sea level, which was about 65 centimeters for each century. In the coastal areas, a constant battle between land and sea has been taking place.”1 Note how the coastline is constantly changing as a result of fluctuating sea levels in subsequent drawings. Today, the Netherlands particularly coastal cities are still threatened by rising sea levels.

2. The supply of rain and meltwater from the hinterlands mainly from rivers Rhine and Maas. These rivers created sedimentation along the delta region forcing the river at the lowlands to divert into multiple different river channels which created a truncated delta region.

1.

“Landscape.” Deltawerken, 2004, www.deltawerken.com/Landscapes/94.html.

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 23

The Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta is a river delta in the Netherlands formed by the confluence of the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt rivers. The combination of multiple river channels creates a multitude of islands. As a result, almost half of the Netherlands can be characterized as a fragmented landscape.

3. The standing water of the swamps in the lowlands. Although this was not as dynamic as the sea, the stagnation and gradual drainage of rainwater created the condition that fostered the formation of the swampy peat bogs landscape. Before human habitation, the swampy delta had been “an inaccessible swamp forest for thousands of years, forming an obstacle for the formation of new river courses.”1 The constant interaction between the flowing rivers and the stagnant water created a very inhabitable situation that human beings have tried to make habitable for centuries.

The following diagrams provide a visual investigation that allows us to see how these three natural processes have shaped the Dutch landscape. By understanding these processes, we are able to better understand and contextualize the water management responses that the Dutch had to implement in order to make the delta habitable for human beings and support economic activities like agriculture. The sequence of drawings is as follows:

Location

The Rhine/Maas River The Rhine/Mass Watershed

Formation Processes

Formation by the North Sea Formation by Melt Water and Rain from the Rhine/Mass Formation of the Peat Bog Region by Standing Water

1.

Geological Society of America. “Lessons from Dutch geological history might be useful for other present-day deltas.” ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181009113604.htm (accessed July 29, 2020).

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Resulting Landscape

Resulting Truncated Landscape Resulting Soil Conditions

Present + Future

Sea level at the Time of Early Settlement and Land Reclamation Landscape As It Might Be Seen Today Future Threat of Sea Level Rise

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 25

North Sea

Germany Belgium

Luxembourg France

The Rhine/Maas River Research Question: Where is the Dutch Landscape located within the Rhine River watershed?

Switzerland Legend:

0

100 miles

Methodology: Copying: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Water Flows

Conclusion: The Netherlands is located in the low lands of the Rhine River. Its location plays a significant role in understanding how this landscape has been shaped by the North Sea and the Rhine River.

Boundaries of other countries in the region

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Boundary of the Netherlands Amsterdam Coastline

North Sea

The Rhine/Mass Watershed Research Question: How can we understand the impact of the Rhine River at it’s delta by understanding the size of the land mass that it drains and the possible volume of water that flows into the North Sea? Methodology: Copying: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Conclusion: Water from the delta rivers Rhine, Meuse, Schelde and IJssel combined form the described drainage basin. Because of how large the drainage basin is, huge volumes of water are deposited in the North Sea shaping the landform as it moves from the headwaters to the lowlands.

Legend:

0

100 miles

Water Flows Rhine River drainage basin Amsterdam Coastline

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 27

Formation by the North Sea Research Question: What did the Dutch Landscape look like before any significant human settlement?

Methodology: Copying and Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Conclusion: The Dutch delta along with its rivers and behavior of sedimentation form the basic foundation of understanding the Dutch landscape. Historic coastal land formation by the North Sea also plays a big part in the ecological processes of this landscape.

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Legend:

0

20 miles

Water Flows Boundary of the Netherlands Amsterdam Influence by the North Sea

Formation by Melt Water and Rain from the Rhine/Mass Research Question: What are the different processes that have shaped the Dutch Landscape?

Legend:

0

Methodology: Copying: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Water Flows

Conclusion: The Dutch landscape was created by dynamic forces of water and soil composition.

Water from the North Sea and delta rivers (Rhine, Meuse, Schelde and IJssel) was the most important and creative energy behind the patterns of sand, clay and formation of the peat bogs.

Amsterdam

20 miles

Highlands

Influence by the North Sea Influence by the delta Rivers

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 29

Formation of the Peat Bog Region by Standing Water Research Question: How did the peat bogs form?

Legend:

0

Methodology: Copying and Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Water Flows

Conclusion: The stagnation and gradual drainage of rainwater created the condition that fostered the formation of the swampy peat bogs landscape.

Amsterdam

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20 miles

Peat Bog Region

Boundary of the Netherlands

Resulting Truncated Landscape Research Question: Why is the Dutch delta a fragmented landscape?

Legend:

0

Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Water Flows

Conclusion: The Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta is a river delta in the Netherlands formed by the confluence of the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt rivers. The combination of multiple river channels creates a multitude of islands. As a result, almost half of the Netherlands can be characterized as a truncated landscape.

Amsterdam

20 miles

Boundary of the Netherlands

Truncated landscape

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 31

Resulting Soil Conditions Research Question: Due to the different processes of land formation, what are the different soil types that make up the Dutch landscape?

Methodology: Copying and Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Conclusion: Multiple dynamic forces from the North Sea and delta rivers form different soils most of which is suitable for farming. The soils can generally be categorized into highland and lowland soils.

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Legend:

0 Sandy Soils Wetland Soils Amsterdam Loam Soils Mountainous Soils

20 miles

Sea level at the Time of Early Settlement Research Question: What portion of the Netherlands is under sea level and most suitable for human habitat?

Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Conclusion: Approximately over half of the Netherlands is below sea level. Much of the early human habitation and land reclamation efforts happened in areas that were and are still threatened by sea level rise.

Legend:

0

20 miles

Territory below sea level Boundary of the Netherlands Amsterdam Coastline

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 33

Landscape As It Might Be Seen Today Research Question: How much of the of the Netherlands has been reclaimed and how does the landscape look like now compared to pre-reclamation?

Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Conclusion: The constant interaction between the flowing rivers and the stagnant water created a very inhabitable truncated landscape that the Dutch have tried to make habitable for centuries.

Today much of the Netherlands is a man made landscape.

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Legend:

0

20 miles

Water Flows Peat Bog Region Amsterdam Boundary of the Netherlands

Leeuwarden

Assen

Lelystat

The Hague

Utrecht Arnhem

Rotterdam

Maasdriel

Middelburg

Antwerpen

Future Threat of Sea Level Rise Research Question: What cities within the Netherlands would disappear with rising sea levels in the future?

0

Legend:

Methodology: Copying and Analysis: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Amsterdam

Conclusion: As Amsterdam looks to the future, every planning effort has to encounter the threat of natural forces like sea level that has shaped the Dutch landscape for centuries. This empathizes why it is important to formulate any urban design proposal with the framework of geology and hydrology if we intend to adapt to global issues like climate change and sea level rise.

Cities

20 miles

Coastline

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 35

LAND: LESSONS FROM THE FORMATION OF THE DUTCH LOWLANDS Locating any project within a given drainage basin or watershed is key to framing any urban design solutions particularly as they pertain to geology and hydrology. Due to the Dutch landscape being located in the lowlands of the Rhine River, we see that there is great impact within the watershed affecting its geomorphological and hydrological patterns.

The diagrams describe first the extent of the landmass that the Rhine River drains which gives us a hint of the volume of water that is dissipated into the North Sea. The extent to which sedimentation and soil deposition played in shaping the Dutch Delta is seen through the different types of soils and truncated nature of the delta. Imagining the Dutch landscape during the Ice Age and sketching what its appearance would have been, framed every investigation that came there after because there was a reference point. This reference point helped us understand how the truncated landscape has changed over time and speaks to how unpredictable it will be in the future. The unpredictability of the Dutch landscape has historically been due to fluctuations in sea level shaping both the delta and coastline.

The last three diagrams describe: the historic sea level line at the time of early settlement and land reclamation, the current Dutch landscape as a result of reclamation projects. It also shows what cities would be likely be submerged in water due to the threat of sea level rise.

The unpredictability of the Dutch delta sets the stage for understanding the specific water management inventions that had to be put in place in order to reduce the risk from the sea and make the land habitable.

Next, my research describes water management strategies that directly responded to the unpredictability of the landscape. These water strategies created a foundation for modern Dutch city planning and Amsterdam’s unique urban form.

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WATER : RECLAMATION TECHNOLOGY, AGRICULTURE AND CITY PLANNING

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 37

Reclamation Technology and Agriculture The dynamic movement of water, particularly as it related to fluctuating sea levels, created a major threat for the inhabitants of the Dutch landscape. This threat forced them to build a manmade landscape in order to protect themselves. The paradox of the polder landscape is that the protective measures like construction of dikes and canals to help tame the North Sea as well as the delta rivers created a water management strategy that ultimately formed the reclaimed landscape and current modern urban form of Amsterdam and the Vondelpark area. In order to make the landscape habitable and profitable from agriculture, Dutch settlers reclaimed the peat bogs first and later lake polders like the Zuider-see. These two reclamation strategies form the foundation of understanding as to why the water management practices created long rectilinear parcels that ultimately dominate Dutch city planning practices. It is worth noting that the early Dutch settlers began to reclaim the peat polders for agriculture much earlier than the lake bed polders. The next few paragraphs will focus on peat polders as a system within the peat bog landscape that creates the foundation for how territory was organized as well as explore the lake polders as a later practice of land reclamation.

The Polder System within the Peat Bog Landscape The Netherlands faces unique water management challenges. As seen from earlier drawings, much of the western part of the country is covered by compressible peat or clay soils much of which is below sea level. “Historic land use practices resulted in loss, decay, and consolidation of these soils and subsequent land subsidence. This, along with the sea level rise, tides, and storms, resulted in a country where one third of the land lies below mean sea level and without dunes, dikes, and pumps, 65% would be under water at high tide.”1 Since about 35% of the land would have been habitable, the Dutch have been able to invent ways to make it suitable for building cities and explore ways to support agriculture. The peat polder reclamations were the first efforts of Dutch land reclamation.

1.

Hoeksema, Robert J., et al. “Three Stages in the History of Land Reclamation in the Netherlands.” Irrigation and Drainage, vol. 56, no. S1, 2007, pp. S113–S126.

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“The earliest wave of reclamation in the riverine area was on the levees, which were gradually brought under cultivation from East to West by local agrarian communities. Ditches were dug at a short distance from one another to channel the water into the rivers. At first arable farming was practiced, but drainage and oxidation caused the peat to compact so quickly that it was only suitable as meadow and hay land. When this happened, new patches of marsh further inland were reclaimed and building followed.�1 While early Dutch settlers were trying to reclaim land for agricultural purposes, their main concern was how to drain the peat bogs in the most efficient and cost effective way. One solution was they built ditches at similar distances from each other at right angles with the pit streams to drain the peat bogs. The drainage units were rectangular (the smallest being 190 to 225 meters long) for practical reasons. The more narrow the parcels for cultivation, the easier it was for the farmers to drain the land and redirect water into built ditches.

Over time more cultivation parcels emerged and there was a need to intentionally manage drainage amongst neighboring farmers. River dikes, peat dikes and transverse weirs were constructed to protect the fields from the water of the higher peat marshes. The system of dikes and weirs working together resulted in drainage proceeding naturally. At the forefront of many of the Dutch landscape reclamation projects is functionality. Functionality creates a framework with long and narrow cultivation parcels being the dominant feature within the agricultural landscape.

This later became the basic form of the modern Dutch urban structure.

Overtime, the water management systems of the old peat bog reclamation projects resulted in the polder system. Dikes were built to protect the Dutch inland from the heavy sea waves and formed a supporting system around the polder landscape creating a unique framework of water management and urban development. This enabled early Dutch settlers to expand their land capacity and recover the land that was lost by the drowned landscape over centuries of rising sea levels. Peat polders and lake-bed polders are the most significant and common expression of the man-made agricultural landscape to date.

1

Wit, Saskia de. Dutch Lowlands: Morphogenesis of a Cultural Landscape. SUN, 2009.

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 39

Lake bed Polders Over many centuries the Dutch have fought against this loss of land in three stages of historic land drainage and reclamation. “The first stage was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when many lakes north of Amsterdam were drained and reclaimed for agricultural use. Windmills were used to pump these lakes dry. Next, in the nineteenth century, Lake Haarlem became the largest lake drained in the Netherlands and the one of the first to be drained using steam powered pumps alone. Finally, in the twentieth century the Zuiderzee tidal estuary was drained and reclaimed, resulting in an additional 1650 km2 of new land for agriculture, recreation, and urban expansion.”1 The beautiful and livable man-made landscape in the Netherlands began to take shape between the years 1500 and 1920 when the first Zuider-see polder was designed. The purpose was to reclaim the lowlands of the Netherlands as well as its lakes. This early form of technology and imagination combined art and science as a way to steward nature which resulted in Holland’s unique modern morphology and legacy of land reclamation around the world.

The first traces of land reclamation are believed to have originated in North Holland with the reclamation of lake bed polders for agricultural purposes. This history of land reclamation that began in the 17th century brought the marshy, uncultivable delta to a fertile, cultivable landscape ripe for both business and habitation. Although settlement had already begun to happen in the middle ages within the Dutch delta, the draining of the lakes began after the year 1530. The invention of large smock mills as well as windmills made land reclamation and the draining of lakes much faster. This allowed Dutch settlers to prepare the land for agriculture in a shorter period of time compared to traditional methods that were previously used. This technological advancement pushed the delta to rapidly become an agricultural landscape.

Wealthy merchants band together to establish joint ventures for the purpose of reclaiming lake polders with hopes of maximizing profits in the future.

1.

Hoeksema, Robert J., et al. “Three Stages in the History of Land Reclamation in the Netherlands.” Irrigation and Drainage, vol. 56, no. S1, 2007, pp. S113–S126.

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The combined economic efforts by the wealthy Dutch merchants created a very robust economic system to support some of the largest reclamation proposals like the Zuider-see lake polder.

Unfortunately, the land reclamation projects did not yield as much profit as were estimated.

The operational expenses of the projects exceeded the revenue produced. Starting in 1635, the increase in land income came to a halt and by 1650 they had almost reached their lowest profit margins. By the year 1750, the delta was hit by epidemics of cattle pests making it nearly impossible to sell or lease land. It was only after 1775 that development began to take a positive turn upward. In 1813 steady profit margins began to stabilize.

Although the peat polder parcellation dominates the Dutch landscape, the later efforts of Dutch modern city planning by Simon Stevin Bruggelinck were drawing from lessons and dimensions from both the peat polder and lake bed polder reclamation efforts. The following series of drawings describe how water management and land reclamation efforts work together to form the foundation on which the Dutch modern city was built.

Peat Bog Polders

Typical Agricultural Polder Landscape Resulting Parcellation and Organization of Territory

Lake Bed Polders

Planned Lakebed Polder Reclamation Resulting Reclaimed Land

Dutch Urban Form

Resulting Urban Form With Rectangular Agricultural Blocks

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Typical Agricultural Polder Landscape Research Question: How were peat polder agricultural villages organized for farming?

Legend:

0

1000 ft

Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Water drainage in a peat polder landscape

Conclusion: Ditches were built at approximately regular distances from each other at right angles with the pit streams to drain the peat bogs. The drainage units were rectangular (the smallest being 190 to 225m long) for practical reasons. The more narrow the parcels for cultivation, the easier it was for the farmers to drain the land and move water out into built ditches.

Amsterdam

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Major roads

Agricultural villages

Resulting Parcellation and Organization of Territory Research Question: What was the resulting parcellation pattern that also formed the foundation for Dutch city planning?

Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Legend:

0

1000 ft

Water drainage in a peat polders landscape Peat polder agricultural parcels

Conclusion: The drainage units were rectangular (the smallest being 190 to 225m long). Water management in the peat polders forms the foundation on which the Dutch modern city was built.

Later efforts of Dutch modern city planning by Simon Stevin Bruggelinck were drawing from lessons and dimensions from peat polder agrarian parcellation.

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 43

Planned Lakebed Polder Reclamation Research Question: What were the historic stages involved in the lakebed reclamation efforts?

Methodology: Copying and Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Conclusion: The first stage was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when many lakes north of Amsterdam were drained and reclaimed for agricultural. The second, in the nineteenth century with the reclamation of Lake Haarlem. Finally, in the twentieth century the Zuiderzee estuary was drained and reclaimed.

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0

Legend:

5 Miles

Rivers The Zuider-see harbor

Resulting Reclaimed Land Research Question: How much of the Zuider-see lakebed polder has been reclaimed?

Methodology: Copying and Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

0

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Rivers Lakebed polders

Conclusion: Today, over half of the Zuider-see lakebed polder has been reclaimed for both agriculture and human settlement.

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Resulting Urban Form With Rectangular Agricultural Blocks Research Question: How did agricultural settlements begin to form and later become large political cities?

Methodology: Experimental: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Conclusion: Due to land speculation, canals were being covered up to give away for streets, former agricultural parcels reclaimed for vertical construction and dikes turned into major streets.

Agricultural villages began to grow along the dike roads.

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Legend: Drainage channels Dikes turned into streets

WATER: LESSONS FROM THE AGRICULTURAL PEAT POLDER LANDSCAPE The water management technologies in the Dutch lowlands arise from a series of natural conditions. First, the formation of the peat bogs as a result of standing water merited peat bog polders as a way to make the delta habitable. Oversupply of water from the Rhine, Meuse and Scheldt rivers, resulted in water needing to be artificially moved through drainage systems such as pumps, levees, dikes, weirs and canals. Later, the dikes became roads because they were above water levels and could not flood. Small agricultural villages began to form along the edges of these dike roads creating robust economic settlements. Canals then formed a larger network over time due to water management linking many polders. The challenges posed by the peat polder landscape creates the backbone of human imaginations. These superimposed imaginations on the landscape inspire the unique urban form of Amsterdam that reflects an intimate relationship between nature and human ingenuity, starting with small agricultural villages.

The natural landscape has an organic form that reflects its geological history, while the technical form of the man-made landscape arises from the creativity that unifies both the natural and man made components to make the delta habitable. The urban landscape displayed in the morphology of Amsterdam has a formal function which re-organizes both the natural and manmade landscapes into a pattern of functional urban transportation and water networks. “The Dutch delta is a reclamation landscape. It has undergone several transformations since the Middle Ages to become an inhabitable, beautiful and unique cultural landscape. Many factors that determine the spatial quality of the future urban landscape are directly connected with the formal properties of the polder landscape of the Dutch lowlands. The form of a landscape is no accidental or random phenomenon, but the result of a transformational process that can also be called a formal process when seen in terms of form.�1 Each of these factors form the basis for organizing territory in the modern Dutch city that directly reflects geological and ecological processes as well as patterns of human settlement. The urban transformation of the Dutch delta from an agricultural landscape to modern cities can be seen through the transformation of topography, spatial forms, visual structures and cultural reflections over time.

1

Wit, Saskia de. Dutch Lowlands: Morphogenesis of a Cultural Landscape. SUN, 2009.

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 47

CITY : URBAN TRANSFORMATION OF AMSTERDAM

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The Invention of Dutch Cities from Agricultural Settlements Due to the rising of the water table as well as ground settlement, the Dutch delta could no longer sustain farming in the marshy landscape forcing farmers to venture into animal husbandry especially cattle raising. Many new settlements were characterized by strong economic orientation towards the export of goods, privately owned property, real estate and labor unions.

With the rise of these settlements that were oriented towards trade and industry, self-governance was vital and began being led by wealthy merchants who had the economic and political influence because of their business undertakings.

During the 14th century the designation of a “city� became very important in establishing strong trade conditions leading to the establishment of many cities like Dordrecht being the first and others like Haarlem, Amsterdam and Delft following later. Pioneering Dutch city planning took lessons from the agricultural landscape that pre-existed the invention of the Dutch modern city. Simon Stevin Bruggelinck’s pioneering planning efforts for the ideal Dutch city suggested measurements for land parcellation. These measurements roughly conformed with the dimensions of the drainage canals and ditches in an agrarian landscape. These agrarian dimensions consisted of standard agriculture parcels of about 100 x 1250 meters. These dimensions were further divided into standard agrarian plots of about 110 x 110 meters, similar to the peat polder parcels seen in the city of Amsterdam and the Vondelpark area.

Urban Transformation of Amsterdam In the development of Amsterdam, it is clear that the urban transformation of the agricultural peat polder landscape always went hand in hand with the formation of the new urban form. The transformation of Amsterdam as a polder city with the peat polder as the basic unit of parcellation and urban transformation can be understood in three different stages all of which have their original connection to the reclaimed agricultural landscape.

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1. A city at the Dam

Amsterdam’s name is derived from a dam on river Amstel. The city of Amsterdam appeared around the year 1200 where the river Amstel, which at the time was a peat bog river, discharged its waters into River IJ. This was a very strategic location due to the rich potential hinterland that the city would have in relation to river transportation and the remainder of the Dutch landscape.

A dam cuts off the waters just before the intersection of Amstel and IJ, which is where the first buildings appear. After the dam was completed, it shifted the mouth of the Amstel river inward forming a natural harbor where goods could be loaded on seagoing vessels creating an engine for economic activities. The stabilization of the IJ tidal channel created a harbor which became the basis for Amsterdam. This resulted in the city establishing itself as a major transportation hub and business center both regionally and internationally.

During the middle ages the peat region within the vicinity of the current Amsterdam city limits was reclaimed. The reclamation of this peat landscape resulted in soil settlement creating an even larger problem for the inhabitants because of the intrusion of water from Amstel and other peat bog rivers. As a result of these drainage problems, “dike rings were constructed around the 13th century and the pattern of reclamation created a comb-like water management structure of ditches and canals.�1 As seen in the agrarian landscape, the peat polder parcels ran perpendicular to the river in order to drain water as quickly as possible into the peat bog rivers. The peat parcellation pattern created a network of ditches, canals, alleys and streets that moved water, goods and people. Trade, storage and transportation services developed along the watercourses as a result of easy loading and unloading of goods. Dwelling areas sprang up along the secondary network of streets because it was more quiet and suitable for residential life. It is clear that the urban network was directly derived from the parcellation pattern of the original peat polder landscape. The formation of the city was responding to both geological and hydrological constraints.

Steenbergen, Clemens M., and Wouter Reh. Metropolitan Landscape Architecture: Urban Parks and Landscapes. Thoth, 2011.

1

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2. Ring canals

By the end of the 16th century Amsterdam had evolved into an international and national trading center that moved goods across Europe and other continents. The explosion of trade necessitated a better plan for the city with easier access to water and access throughout the city by water as a central planning condition. In 1609, the city leaders approved plans to expand the city with a series of new canals dug around the old city. These canals helped maintain the water levels across the entire city and along the Amstel river as well as the delta to control flooding.

The new system of canals broke the existing peat polder parcellation pattern with the proposed ideal plan projected onto the existing landscape. As a result, two water-city situations were created. The first result is that the peat polders form and shape the western part of the city right outside the ring canals known as the Jordaan. The other result was the ring canals that managed water from the IJ (zuider zee) harbor. It is worth noting that the canals and the peat polders were necessitated by two different water management conditions. The canals were managing water on a city scale while the peat polders were working on a regional scale all working together to make the city habitable. The following series of drawings depict how these two different situations coexisted to create the unique urban formation of Amsterdam.

3. A city of streets in the peat polders.

By the end of the 19th century when industrialization was beginning to take over many established European cities, Amsterdam began to break off and expand outside its 17th-century city limits. At this time there were individual property builders developing new homes outside the old city limits without following an expansion plan because the city did not have one. In 1866, the City Council instructed J.G. Van Niftrik to prepare an expansion plan. His expansion plan was completed by the year 1867 and it included public gardens, residential neighborhoods, public parks, and a series of squares all surrounding the old city limits just like many European cities at the time. The City Council opposed this plan and deemed it too ambitious because it did not follow the peat polder parcellation framework. All land outside the city was owned by individual property owners which would have made the acquisition of land more difficult.

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 51

“In 1877, the director of public works J. Kalff prepared an expansion plan that was more pragmatic and sympathetic because it followed the existing peat parcellation pattern as closely as possible which made the acquisition of land more feasible.�1 This opened up opportunities for incremental development and land acquisition. Although this plan did not create a uniform urban pattern of blocks, streets, and lots, it created a dynamic framework that followed the agricultural landscape that existed before the urbanization of Amsterdam.

As the city expanded outside the canal rings that formed the city boundaries, we see the defensive moat was constantly being rebuilt and shifted further out. Land speculation was taking place by mainly private landowners who wanted to take advantage of the growing city and the need for residential suburbs outside the city limits. This land speculation situation began to happen around the hinterland of Amsterdam with the canals being covered up to give away for streets. Former agricultural parcels also began being reclaimed for vertical construction. As a result, the interplay between the former agrarian peat polder landscape and urbanization fueled by economic speculation, several suburbs were being planned and constructed outside the main city limits. Establishments like the Jordaan and Vondelpark area attracted capital investment in the form of real estate, reclaiming most of the agricultural land just outside the city limits.

These real estate developments by both public and private economic agencies began to create a network of blocks, streets, and lots that followed the agrarian parcellation system because it allowed for easy acquisition of property. As the city continued to grow in the suburbs and Amsterdam continued to establish itself as a main business center for Europe, a clear urban form began to arise from the peat polder landscape along with the ring canals that formed the city of Amsterdam. In the next few paragraphs, we see an example of how a suburb in the Vondelpark area was developed within the peat polder parcellation framework.

Steenbergen, Clemens M., and Wouter Reh. Metropolitan Landscape Architecture: Urban Parks and Landscapes. Thoth, 2011.

1

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Vondelpark Area as a Polder Urban Transformation Project in Amsterdam Vondelpark stands out as one of the most iconic projects which marks a moment in history when the peat polder parcel was the elementary building block for Dutch urban spaces. Vondelpark was a special project within the 19th-century expansion of Amsterdam. Arising from a private initiative that acquired the land before the 1877 expansion plan, the park spans the whole length of a peat polder and finds its unique form from the pre-urbanized agricultural landscape. The landscape architectural expression which sought to achieve the greatest possible contrast with the morphology of the streets, squares and urban blocks surrounding it produced a unique urban transformation project that was radically different from its counterparts yet it was inspired by the historic agricultural peat polder landscape.

Vondelpark was designed by garden architect J.D. Zocher Jr. and his son L.P. Zocher. From the onset, the project aspired to be designed and built in phases due to its ambitious scale.

According to Steenbergen, “The first 10 hectares began their construction in 1865 when over 938 donors completed their financial pledges. In 1867 the Park expanded by another 6 hectares after a collection of 120,000 guilders which only supported the construction of a flower bed beyond the original limits of the park. In 1872 new collections were held to expand the park by 16 hectares.

However, the park commission had to purchase land outside the park and resell it for building capital because the 130,000 guiders collected at the time fell short of their expectations and budget for the planned phase.�1 Seeing that the park was projected onto the original peat polder parcels, it takes on a narrow and elongated shape with straight edges just like the pre-urbanised agricultural landscape. The father-son design team tried to imitate a natural river landscape similar to the Dutch delta. They achieved this by designing curved water features and meandering pathways that created a sense of continuity of space.

Steenbergen, Clemens M., and Wouter Reh. Metropolitan Landscape Architecture: Urban Parks and Landscapes. Thoth, 2011.

1

Amsterdam and the Dutch Landscape| 53

For example, the lawns were designed to be concave so that they appear longer than they actually are. The elongation of the design elements within the park are further reinforced by the careful planting of linear clusters of trees, very few of which exist today.

In 1953, the city of Amsterdam took over the park management due to many years of the park authority financially struggling to maintain it. “In 1996 Vondelpark became the first public park in the Netherlands to be designated as a “national monument of great natural, cultural or historical and urban planning value.” an honor that not many places especially an urban park would usually get.”1 Because of this very prestigious designation, the park embarked on a large renovation effort that lasted over 11 years to restore the park to its original design as much as possible. The renovations were finally completed in 2010 by landscape architect Michael Van Gessel. During this effort, overgrown trees were trimmed, paths restored, sharp corners were rounded off, new plants along the water edges were planted and the views across the water were opened up. The park was restored back to its original design and intentions just like the Zocher’s imagined the park to function..

Vondelpark could be regarded as the ultimate example of the urban transformation of the peat polder landscape within the Dutch landscape. It incorporates the hydraulic qualities of a peat polder landscape using different water pumping and hydraulic technologies. The plan of the park contains the basic elements of peat polder parcels such as its basic measurement module. The visual structure of Vondelpark references the Dutch agricultural landscape with attractions like the fenced pasture grounds for cattle, barns for storing animal feed and workshop stations for repairing agriculture equipment. These properties tie together topographic, visual, cultural and spatial transformations in one exceptional urban project.

The following series of drawings describe in chronological order the urban morphology of Amsterdam and its suburbs like the Vondelpark area. The drawings are in the following order: Steenbergen, Clemens M., and Wouter Reh. Metropolitan Landscape Architecture: Urban Parks and Landscapes. Thoth, 2011.

1

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Before Amsterdam

Morphology of Amsterdam

Expansion of Amsterdam

Amstel Land in the year 1000 Amstel Land in the year 1100 Amsterdam in the year 1250 Amsterdam in the year 1275 Amsterdam in the year 1320 Amsterdam in the year 1450 Amsterdam in the year 1597 Amsterdam in the year 1625 Amsterdam in the year 1662 Amsterdam in the year 1724 Amsterdam in the year 1815 Amsterdam in the year 1854 Amsterdam in the year 1903

The last set of drawings describe how an urban transformation project within the Vondelpark neighborhood could situate itself in the peat polder landscape. This is an extension of Amsterdam outside the main city walls. The drawings are in the following order: Vondelpark Area

Peat Polders as Framework for Urban Transformation Elements of Vondelpark that Emphasize the Agrarian Landscape

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Amstel Land in the year 1000 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

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0

Legend: Rivers

Amsterdam

5 Miles

Amstel Land in the year 1100 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

0

Legend:

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Rivers Drainage channels Amsterdam

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Amsterdam in the year 1250 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

0

Legend: Rivers

Drainage channels Amsterdam

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2.5 Miles

Amsterdam in the year 1275 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Legend:

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Coastline Drainage channels Settlements

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Amsterdam in the year 1320 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Legend:

0 Coastline

Drainage channels Settlements

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1000 ft

Amsterdam in the year 1450 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Legend:

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Coastline Drainage channels Settlements

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Amsterdam in the year 1597 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Legend:

0 Coastline Drainage channels Settlements

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1000 ft

Amsterdam in the year 1625 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Legend:

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Coastline Drainage channels Settlements

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Amsterdam in the year 1662 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Legend:

0 Coastline Drainage channels Settlements

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1000 ft

Amsterdam in the year 1724 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Legend:

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Coastline Drainage channels Settlements

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Amsterdam in the year 1815 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Legend:

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Coastline Drainage channels Settlements Changing coastline due to land reclamation

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Amsterdam in the year 1854 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Legend:

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Coastline Drainage channels Settlements Changing coastline due to land reclamation

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Amsterdam in the year 1903 Methodology: Analytical: Hand drawn on trace paper, scanned and post processed using Adobe Photoshop.

Legend:

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Coastline Drainage channels Settlements Changing coastline due to land reclamation

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Peat Polders as Framework for Urban Transformation Research Question: How could a later urban transformation project like Vondelpark frame it’s planning within the peat polder landscape?

Methodology: Analytical: Base drawing from: Vondelpark Peat Parcels: Image by Steenbergen, Clemens.

Legend:

0

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Peat polder parcels Settlements

Conclusion: Because the park was projected onto the original peat polder parcels, it takes on a narrow and elongated shape with straight edges just like the pre-urbanised agricultural landscape.

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Elements of Vondelpark that Emphasize the Agrarian Landscape Research Question: What specific design elements in Vondelpark reemphasize it’s location within the peat polder landscape?

Methodology: Analytical: Base drawing from: Vondelpark Peat Parcels: Image by Steenbergen, Clemens.

Conclusion: Curving water features and meandering paths create a sense of continuity of space.

The lawns were designed to be concave so that they appear longer than they actually are. Finally, the elongation of the design elements within the park are further reinforced by the careful planting of linear clusters of trees.

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Legend:

0 Peat polder parcels Settlements

200 ft

CITY: LESSONS FROM URBAN TRANSFORMATION OF AMSTERDAM The expansion plan of Amsterdam shows a prominent connection with the peat polder landscape as the main departure point for how the city would extend its canal systems and other transportation networks to manage the movement of goods, people and control flooding.

Vondelpark became a practical example of how peat polder parcels within the city could be retrofitted either individually or by clusters over the life of the project. Over its multi-phase expansion and development, it provided a step by step approach of how parcels within the peat polders could be retrofitted for a new urban lifestyle.

Within the different development patterns across Amsterdam, different reclamation and land conditions merited different responses like the canal and peat polder systems. Although they functioned differently, both derived from the original agriculture peat polder landscape. The investigation criteria of land, water and city clarifies how the city of Amsterdam was formed.

Without a direct response to geological and hydrological conditions, Amsterdam would not have taken on the unique form it has today.

The relationships between the natural landscape, water and human activities are critical to answering the research question. By drawing both the ecological and historical transformations of the natural landscape of the delta (land), it is clear that the Dutch landscape was formed by geological processes long before man began to settle within the delta. The man-made landscape then began to exist due to the exploitation of the landscape in the form of agriculture and profitable land reclamation efforts (water). The later urban landscape (city) that aimed at making the uninhabitable delta suitable for human settlement was shaped by civil engineering and hydraulic interventions in the natural landscape to form the modern city.

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FINAL REFLECTIONS

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OBSERVATIONS Manhattan, Amsterdam and Atlanta are cities that vary in terms of both their land formation, water flow patterns and urban formation. Atlanta as a highland diversifies this research. Atlanta is at the top of the watershed as Amsterdam is at the bottom of the watershed and Manhattan is an island out in the ocean. The lessons learned from these three cities help us re-imagine how urban design should be approached. It is without a doubt that any urban design will encounter elements of geomorphology and hydrology at any given scale of operation. The starting point of any urban design and planning proposal should be a critical investigation of the interaction between geomorphology, hydrology and urban formation. Drawings are a great tool to use as a research instrument. Through my research it became clear that Amsterdam’s urban form emerged from its early agrarian landscape. Lessons from Amsterdam could be applied to other cities around the world like Atlanta, using the same method of drawing and investigation. The following summary will explore how the drawing techniques used to study the city of Amsterdam are used to reimagine and retrofit the city of Atlanta.

LAND: The processes of land formation in the Dutch lowlands created the condition for specific water management methods that were used by early settlers to tame the uninhabitable landscape. Influence from the North Sea as well as the delta rivers created a landscape that was dynamic and unpredictable.

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Starting with the peat polders, early Dutch settlers began to cultivate the delta even though over 50% of the Netherlands was threatened by sea level rise. The peat polder parcellation and other water management strategies created a foundation for streets, blocks and lots for the modern Dutch city like Amsterdam. Without a clear understanding of these processes that created the Dutch landscape, it would not be possible to understand why Amsterdam’s urban form takes on its unique shape. This same approach could be used to understand Atlanta’s landform. The processes that formed the Georgia Piedmont create a unique condition for the foothills on which Atlanta is located. Prior to massive urbanization, the Piedmont foothills were an agricultural landscape filled with many creeks and streams. These waterways provided fresh water and transportation routes for the native inhabitants. Atlanta is also characterized by the eastern continental divide and the Peachtree ridge. Attributable to the geological formation of Atlanta, Peachtree Street follows Peachtree ridge which has become one of the oldest human artifacts in the city. The robust railroad infrastructure followed the ridge lines finding its terminus at the zero mile post which is today known as the Gulch. Therefore, it is clear that geomorphology has informed how the native inhabitants of Atlanta lived and cultivated the piedmont foothills and how contemporary roads and rail infrastructures were built.

WATER: The swampy conditionals in the lowland of Amsterdam created the need for a robust land reclamation and water management system. The oversupply of water within the coastal delta lowlands required the settlers to use artificial methods to drain the water from the agricultural parcels due to lack of natural drainage. Dikes, weirs and canals were built as water management systems to manage flooding and stabilize water levels. Later, the dikes became roads and agricultural villages naturally formed alongside them. Atlanta is located at the top of a watershed and is characterized by four spring heads which once served as drainage for agricultural purposes and supplied fresh drinking water for inhabitants of the city. As the city of Atlanta grew wider, much of the creeks and streams were used as conduits for waste water and later restricted to underground pipes. Consequently, as the city grew beyond the downtown core towards the Beltline, more and more creeks were buried leaving no trace of the rich geomorphological and hydrological patterns that once existed.

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CITY: The Dutch land reclamation efforts created Amsterdam’s unique urban form. The dam which connected both sides of the peat polder river Amstel resulted in canals being constructed perpendicular to the river in order to create a natural flow of both people and water onto the harbor The network of canals began to support a robust economic center for both the supply of goods within the Netherlands and Europe. As development increased, streets began to follow the pattern of both perpendicular canals and ring canals that drained and managed water in the city. With the expansion of the city suburbs like Jordaan, individual builders began to build houses and develop the peat polder agricultural parcels. As a result, the peat polders that once characterized much of the Dutch landscape directly informed how streets, blocks and lots were organized. Atlanta on the other hand, diverted away from the natural processes of drainage and its underlying geomorphology and superimposed the geometry of land lots and independence subdivisions of land without any reference to topography or hydrology. Wastewater and stormwater management was then organized within the streets of the subdivided land lots. Atlanta’s approach often ignores the land and water formation processes of the previous agricultural landscapes that were highly dependent on the streams and creeks for drainage and freshwater supply.

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LAND Atlanta: Highland and lowlands

WATER Atlanta: Buried creeks and streams

CITY Atlanta: The saddle on which Atlanta was established

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CONCLUSION The study of Atlanta discovered three critical conditions that make up the geology and hydrology of the city. First, the highland-lowland dynamics emphasize Atlanta‘s infrastructure as it was first built on high points and ridges. Secondly, the drawings were able to identify Atlanta’s approach to natural drainage corridors in relation to its growth. Finally, the study revealed specific topographic conditions that characterize Atlanta’s downtown core. The Gulch, where three ridges meet forming a flat piece of ground, created a topographic condition that allowed the railroad terminus to be built. This railroad gave Atlanta the opportunity to establish itself as a transportation hub similar to that of Amsterdam. This parallel in exploring the same technique in two different cities has resulted in highlighting the unique and natural features of both regions. Therefore, retrofitting Atlanta means adaptively reimagining how the agricultural landscape depended on both geomorphology and hydrology for its survival. As we think about design approaches for Atlanta and other cities, urban design proposals should strive to work with and celebrate land and water instead of fighting against it. This research project has taught me how to read and document land formations and hydrological patterns of cities which can inform future projects and proposals by using hand drawn techniques. The vision of this project would not have been possible without uncovering the deep roots of Amsterdam’s urban form in relation to its natural and artificial transformations. The hand drawing method may appear less sophisticated compared to digital means however it is an important tool to understanding the relationship between land, water and city in urban design.

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Reconstructed from 1895 historic map of Atlanta

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Re-imagining Atlanta from geological and hydrological systems

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joel jassu

// Georgia Institute of Technology // July. 2020