Three architectural interventions, the polder pavilions, make perceptible the history of the polders of Noordwaard in the Biesbosch wetlands

The polders of Noordwaard in the Biesbosch wetlands are to be depoldered in the very near future to make more room for the river. In this project the imminent managed retreat of Noordwaard is regarded not as the wilful destruction of cultivated land but rather as continuing the existing culture of landscape deformation. The history of Biesbosch shows that polders come and go and that the landscape is constantly being adapted to our needs at any one time. The influence of people and the narratives lurking behind the processes of land reclamation and reinundation make this bare landscape a fascinating place. The beauty of this dynamic perfectible landscape, enshrined in the traces and impressions of the old dyke structures, is made perceptible in this project by three architectural interventions - the polder pavilions.

These pavilions accommodate a teahouse, a grain silo and sundry small dwellings for temporary residence. The buildings and structures slice into the landscape at designated places to render legible the perfectibility of the land. Sited discretely and designed specifically for each site, this is no consistent series, but they do allow the vertical planes in the landscape to be opened up by a walking route or a boat trip at high water. Parts of the pavilions are always accessible and enable ramblers and other leisure-seekers to visit the places in question. In the constantly changing landscape, the pavilions act as reference points in time and space. A pavilion standing in an agricultural landscape one year will be in the middle of an inundation zone the next. So they remain fixed points in the dynamic landscape, landmarks for the area's visitors and other users in the vast space of the polder.

The way these pavilions are built and connected to the landscape reflects the way dykes, drainage ditches and other man-made landscape elements leave permanent impressions in the land. Closely tied to the polder soil as they are, the polder pavilions like the hydraulic engineering structures leave deep impressions in the earth and deform the landscape. In this project the impressions and textural changes in the soil - the scar tissue left after every change made to the landscape - are deployed to make perceptible the narratives of the perfectible landscape.

Place of education: TU Eindhoven | Specialization: architecture | Tutors: Jos Bosman, Hüsnü Yegenoglu, Jacob Voorthuis, John Lonsdale