Narrative infrastructure and functional heritage
the renovation of the New Dutch Waterline around Utrecht
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Abstract
The New Dutch Waterline (NDW) was built to defend Holland. It comprised of a system of waterworks for inundating and military elements for troops. This study will focus on the part around Utrecht of the New Dutch Waterline, one which is in urban fringe and faces urbanization.The main research question is whether it is possible to transform the language (historical image, the composition grammar and spatial features) of the New Dutch Waterline into a functional and narrative framework of urbanization. Specifically, the design is aimed to provide a framework for the urbanization, which can make the visible and invisible heritage legible (represent historical stories and the new characters of heritage colored by the complex environments) and solve the urban problems (de-fragment and resilient water management). In this case, landscape plays the role as language and machine at the same time.