Land and Farmers Equilibrium

Restoring the balance between land and humans in Northern Friesland

Master thesis (2022)

Authors

H. Wander Architecture and the Built Environment

Contributors

L. Cipriani Landscape Architecture - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 1)
L.M. Calabrese Urban Design - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 2)
J.S. Zeinstra Situated Architecture - Architecture and the Built Environment (supervisor 2)
Faculty
Architecture and the Built Environment
Copyright: © 2022 Hanneke Wander
Nature-inclusive agriculture Social structures Northern Friesland Cultural heritage Ecological corridors
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Published Date

03-11-2022

Language

English

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Faculty

Architecture and the Built Environment

Abstract

The agricultural landscape in the Netherlands has changed drastically over the course of the last 70 years. After World War II, it was governmental policy that pushed the transition to intensive farming by giving out subsidies. These developments have also had an impact on the province of Friesland, where agriculture has a long history and is thereby embedded in the province’s landscape identity. However, years of scaling up have caused a loss of small-scale structures in the landscape. The result is not only the disappearance of a historic cultural landscape but also the rapid decline of a biodiversity. Fertilisers and pesticides are the two biggest polluters of Dutch surface water, both secondary effects of intensive agriculture. Today, the balance between ecology, the landscape and intensive agricultural practice is lost.

This thesis has two main objectives. First a study, to understand the agricultural developments that have taken place since World War II in the Netherlands and specifically Friesland. This study will examine the effects these developments have on ecology, social structures, and the cultural heritage found throughout Friesland. Secondly, a research-by-design assignment aims to find a solution to how a new balance between agriculture, ecology and the landscape can be found through design. Three strategies are developed which are emphasising cultural-historical structures, strengthening ecological values and working with the vernacular.
The strategies are implemented on a regional scale in Friesland and on a local scale in dialogue with a local farmer.

Through various scales, ecological corridors are strengthened in the area by introducing nature-friendly banks along waterways. These ecological corridors will connect routes on both land and water with cultural-historical structures in the area. In addition, a small-scale farmers’ nature network is implemented. On a local scale, a water-purifying helophyte field will be constructed which filters agricultural water run-off before it discharges into a local waterway.

This project can serve as a reference to how we can move towards a newfound balance between ecology, the landscape and agricultural practice in the Netherlands.