The Biography of the Houtribdijk The Biography of the Houtribdijk

In the coming months, participants in a series of closed workshops will investigate the relationship between water management and rural and urban planning through the study of historical materials from Het Nieuwe Instituut's archive. On 7 November, the urban planner Frits Palmboom will give a public introduction to the second workshop's subject: Cornelis van Eesteren's design sketches for the Houtribdijk.

At this inaugural meeting, Palmboom, a professor of urbanism at the Delft University of Technology, will introduce the research project. Zef Hemel, an urban planner and special professor of urban-density issues at the University of Amsterdam, will give a presentation on Cornelis van Eesteren and his decades-long involvement in the design of the IJsselmeer polders, in particular the never-built Markerwaard polder and the Houtribdijk. Palmboom will then speak with the civil engineer Henk van der Molen and the landscape architect Jan Wouter Bruggenkamp about the history of the dyke and the Zuiderzee works, in which both men were involved.

The Houtribdijk was meant as a coastline that would have protected the new land of the Markerwaard from the sea. With the construction of the more northerly Afsluitdijk, and because the Markerwaard was never drained in the end, the dyke has been neglected. It does not meet today's safety standards and requires modernisation. A new vision for the area around the dyke will be sought in the coming years as part of the research programme of the Van Eesteren chair, held by Frits Palmboom.

A new vision for the Houtribdijk will require the marriage of a landscape design vision, an understanding of the natural systems around the dyke, and civil-engineering interventions. But it will also require a reinterpretation of Van Eesteren's work. In the coming weeks, research on the Houtribdijk's design process will be carried out in the archive of Het Nieuwe Instituut. Central questions include: Why was the Houtribdijk planned as it was? Which steps led Van Eesteren to his definitive design? Which knowledge did he accrue along the way? Which knowledge from other fields did he incorporate in the design process? And which lessons does it suggest for the future?

The public opening event and the private workshop comprise part of the project Water & Urban Development, an AAARO study of climate-adaptive design.

Date: Friday 7 November 2014
Time: 3-5pm
Location: Bakema Serre, Het Nieuwe Instituut, Museumpark 25, Rotterdam
Language: Dutch

The Dance of Dykes, the final presentation of the Houtribdijk research results, will take place on 12 December 2014.