1 The Tower of Babel was a Coastal Edifice
7
1.11
Final Remarks
For the coast, the difference is in the technology and the design. In a sustainable world,
there is no next destructiveness, no next conversion of nature into an ugly port, where
ugly goods are being transloaded from ugly container ships into ugly trucks and lorries, that carry them to an ever more uglier hinterland, to be there consumed and disposed of on ever larger and uglier waste mountains. This is all we have done for a
century or so, and one day it must stop. There is no future in further destruction.
A next coastal development in The Netherlands, therefore, has to be a definite journey into the age of beauty. So be it that sea levels will rise, due to global warming - then
though the Dutch shall not construct another huge dam of steel and concrete! On the
contrary, the next coast inevitably has to be built, but it has to become a coast of nature,
where all we have learned about ecosystems and natural reserves find a place, the final
natural harmony between man and technolgy. For the Zuiderzee, we made such a design, which is comparable. Other than the known tradition of heavy dikes and mathematical structures to effectively block the sea, we designed a flexible landscape, the
Almeria Archipelago, a wilderness of inlets, islands, swamps, wetlands and waterways,
where almost all natural functions will benefit. It will end, for instance, the onslaught
on birds, it will improve birdlife, fishlife and the diversity of plants, it will clear the
water quality, and it will create surprise and adventure in a country which is now so
void of natural resources. A next North Sea coast should be no different; a flexible coast,
not a sturdy one. A coast full of inlets, lagoons and new estuaries. The black stork will
live here again, as well the white heron, but also the dolphin and the smaller whales
should return.
The future is not about a repeat of the past. The future is not about Big is Beautiful.
The future is about care and prudence, about integration and harmony with the living
world.
7
1.11
Final Remarks
For the coast, the difference is in the technology and the design. In a sustainable world,
there is no next destructiveness, no next conversion of nature into an ugly port, where
ugly goods are being transloaded from ugly container ships into ugly trucks and lorries, that carry them to an ever more uglier hinterland, to be there consumed and disposed of on ever larger and uglier waste mountains. This is all we have done for a
century or so, and one day it must stop. There is no future in further destruction.
A next coastal development in The Netherlands, therefore, has to be a definite journey into the age of beauty. So be it that sea levels will rise, due to global warming - then
though the Dutch shall not construct another huge dam of steel and concrete! On the
contrary, the next coast inevitably has to be built, but it has to become a coast of nature,
where all we have learned about ecosystems and natural reserves find a place, the final
natural harmony between man and technolgy. For the Zuiderzee, we made such a design, which is comparable. Other than the known tradition of heavy dikes and mathematical structures to effectively block the sea, we designed a flexible landscape, the
Almeria Archipelago, a wilderness of inlets, islands, swamps, wetlands and waterways,
where almost all natural functions will benefit. It will end, for instance, the onslaught
on birds, it will improve birdlife, fishlife and the diversity of plants, it will clear the
water quality, and it will create surprise and adventure in a country which is now so
void of natural resources. A next North Sea coast should be no different; a flexible coast,
not a sturdy one. A coast full of inlets, lagoons and new estuaries. The black stork will
live here again, as well the white heron, but also the dolphin and the smaller whales
should return.
The future is not about a repeat of the past. The future is not about Big is Beautiful.
The future is about care and prudence, about integration and harmony with the living
world.