Rethinking Poldervaart

Abstract

The main intention of this thesis is the proposal of a new approach of the landscape that takes into account the local context in a different way. The complete and holistic understanding of the local character of the area and the interpretation of it with contemporary means will create a basis of a self-conscious design. Time-resistant structures accompanied by peculiarities of the specific place can be the answer to our fragmented urban landscapes avoiding the overimposition of direct solutions on top of them. In such a way, the creation of a place derives from the physical characteristics of the area and its significant historic structures which restore the connections between the variant landscape patches.

Considering Poldervaart as a time-resistant structure for healing the fragmented landscape of the area between Schiedam and Vlaardingen and from the Schie to the Maas, this project proposes its reinforcement as a backbone structure that will act as a connector and a generator of connections in two scales. In a regional scale the monumental axis of Poldervaart establishes a connection between the area of Midden Delfland to the river Maas while on a local scale the canal receives the role of generating connections between urban fragments, city parks, allotment gardens, and parts of historic cultural landscape.

By focusing on three areas-nods along Poldervaart, the project promotes and safeguards the continuity of its axis by re-establishing connections and creating the conditions for unique unifying public spaces. Together with that, smallscale interventions along the canal shield its coherence and readability and offer conceptual connections and noteworthy experiences that reveal the cultural aspect of the landscape.

This action if repetitive can inform a strategy that acts against fragmentation as a more situated approach for connecting and restoring a fragmented urban landscape, by taking advantage of time-resistant structures that exist along it.