Remains of privileged spaces

Abstract

Our built environment creates relations between ourselves and those who came before us: we are confronted with the morality of our ancestors. Two examples from the landscape around the Dutch city Delft suggest that material remains in that landscape—canals, sluices, embankments, and so on—represent historical ideas of right and wrong. The Orange Sluice stands symbolize how the practical need for managing water coincides with issues of power and control. Polder Berkel shows a changing local landscape, in which new goals created new connections between the local landscape and the larger area. These examples suggest that preserving historical elements is closely related to issues of power, identity, and access, just as the building of the original infrastructure was.