ABSTRACT
The polder is the most distinctive feature of the Dutch Delta landscape. From the perspective of landscape, a polder is a particular spatial, topographic entity—that is to say, a landscape with a coherent topographical pattern, generally surrounded by dikes or embankments, which define the space. The construction of ring dikes to protect drained land from seawater was, perhaps, the most significant step in transforming the swampy delta into a polder landscape. Compositional manipulation of these formal and visual elements can raise the landscape form to an architectonic level that brings aesthetic and cultural motifs into play. The history of occupation in the southwest delta is different from the history in the northern mudflat landscapes. Inhabitants started to create holes in the peat landscape to extract salt from seawater. The peat bogs brought under cultivation didn't have any of the old creek patterns like the reclaimed river and coastal landscapes did.
