Postcards from the blue heart : landscape change In the Dutch lowlands

Abstract

The Green Heart is an agricultural area situated in the center of the Randstad, a metropolis in the Western Netherlands. Like the rest of Holland, it is a constructed landscape. The region is facing twin challenges: the need to make room for water as a strategy to deal with climate change, and the fact that the liberalization of the European dairy industry will make it exceedingly difficult for small family farms to compete in the global market. Certain places retain a historical, urban or cultural significance that transcends their physical or ecological properties; in its embodiment of the Dutch pastoral, the Green Heart has become such a landscape. The pastoral myth has very real ramifications for the identity of the Randstad, and must be carefully negotiated in any intervention that attempts to change the image or form of the Green Heart. This thesis investigates how new natures can be constructed within the myth of the pastoral, through a study of this Dutch lowland landscape and a design proposal that encompasses the landscape and the architectural scales. The "Blue Heart" is both a strategic intervention that reinterprets additional water as an economic boon, as well as a building typology that enables farmers to capitalize on this new nature.