Canals and Barriers

Building cities and regions around water infrastructure has shaped the history of the Netherlands. The city of Delft (from the Dutch word for “dig”) was built in about the year 1100 organized by its original canals; the first two created a ridge between them on which driven piles would then support houses.

More recently the scale of water infrastructure has included building barriers to protect whole regions. In the years 1976-86, the 9 km the Oosterchelde Barrier was built to protect the region from a flood “unlikely to occur more than once in 4000 years”.

Visit www.rijkswaterstaat.nl/en

Contoured wood, plaster of Paris, photos + Acrylics

33” x 24”

2019