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The Dutch are famous for their never-ending struggle against the water that constantly threatens to inundate its “low countries” from all sides and it can only be kept under control with a great deal of technical effort. It’s less well known that, in a kind of reverse logic, water was also used as a defence mechanism for several centuries in the Netherlands. From the seventeenth century onwards, various water lines were created in the Netherlands: long stretches of uninhabited land that could be flooded for defence purposes.
This and previous page: In 2010, Rietveld Architecture Art Affordances sliced open one of the 700 little bunkers of the New Dutch Water Line. A wooden boardwalk leads through it onto a flooded basin that was once part of this water defence line. (Photos: RAAAF)
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Fortresses, and later also bunkers, lying in the landscape like pearls on a string, served as extra protection for cities and higher ground. In case of an invasion, the inundation locks were opened until the land stood 40 cm under water – just enough to make it impenetrable for soldiers, wagons and horses, but too shallow to navigate by ship.
The water lines were maintained and constantly modernised until 1940, when German aerial attacks proved mud soup to be a rather out-dated defence tool.Fort Diemerdam is part of the “Stelling of Amsterdam”, a UNESCO world heritage site. Existing bunkers, guardian houses, slopes and strongholds have been restored, and Emma Architecten have inserted a new wooden pavilion where events, guided tours and catering is organized. (Photo: John Lewis Marshall)
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Despite being disused, the lines are still recognisable in the landscape today, and in 1995 the New Dutch Water Line, which is 85 kilometres long and roughly encircles the Randstad agglomeration, was proposed for the UNESCO World Heritage list. The same line is designated as a national project envisaging “preservation through development” until the year 2020. Forts have been opened and waterworks restored, sometimes resulting in sizeable land art projects. Most of the old fortresses and also some of the bunkers – which, to the annoyance of many a farmer, are too solid to demolish – have been repurposed as sights and tourist destinations. I
The Fort Werk aan ’t Spoel was built in 1794 to protect one of the flood locks of the New Dutch Water Line. Integrating old bunkers and a new Fort house, RAAAF turned the huge amphitheatre-like fort into a playground for cultural and leisure activities. (Photo: Rob ’t Hart)
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