Wieringen Passage

The Dutch have a tradition of turning water into land. In the northwest of the country, however, plans are being developed to turn land that was only reclaimed from the sea 80 years ago back into water. The Masterplan for the Wieringen passage covers an area of 1,600 hectare, and involves a new lake of 850 hectare, 600 hectare of new nature and 2,100 dwellings. The implementation of the Masterplan will provide an economic boost to the tip of North Holland, a region that is facing demographic and economic decline.

One of the special aspects of the process is that the implementation plan was designed on a regional scale. That seldom happens in The Netherlands since the Zuyder Sea polders were completed and the Markerwaard plans were definitely cancelled. That means that considerations can be taken into account at the same time for the bonding of the new lake at the tip of North Holland; the traffic structure in the vicinity of the lake; the edges and the embankments; the shape of the residential islands; parcellation principles; bridges; aquatic sediments; the height of the entrances to the residences in relation to the water level, etc.

The realisation of the Wieringen Passage will turn Wieringen back into an island. On the Wieringen side Strootman suggests a natural marsh landscape with reeds, water and land, with gradual transitions between land and water and high biodiversity. The new dwelling areas are constructed on elongated islands, embedded in this natural landscape and orientated towards the water. The design is different on the polder side, where the beauty of the civil engineering and the large scale of the polder form the guiding principle for the landscape design. In this way the Wieringen passage increases the contrast between the lovely, small-scale, rolling landscape of Wieringen and the robust landscape of the Wieringermeerpolder.