1. “God created the world,
but the Dutch created the
Netherlands”
According to many foreigners, this familiar saying expresses what
makes the Netherlands so different and so unique. Most of its land
surface is made up of a delta of the rivers Rhine, Meuse, Scheldt
and Ems – a delta that would be an almost uninhabitable swamp
if hundreds of years of human effort had not been dedicated to
making this marshy land fit for habitation. The success of these
efforts is obvious today: with a population of more than 16
million, the Netherlands is the most densely populated country in
Europe. Sixteen million people wanting to carry out their
everyday activities at home, school and work, to travel about the
country, and sometimes to get away and enjoy more tranquil
surroundings. Meanwhile, they all want to feel safe living behind
the dunes and dikes that continue to be increased in height for the
sake of security.
Because the wishes of a growing population are always changing, the
Netherlands is subject to ongoing alterations as well. It is this ability to
recreate our land that is considered the most fundamental heritage of the
Dutch. It seems as if it’s in our blood.
History, heritage
and heritage management
Similar to other countries, much of the history of reclaiming, inhabiting and
working the land can still be observed in the Dutch landscape. Differences in
elevation, soil types, safety and accessibility have provided a great diversity
of economic opportunities down through the centuries. And with this
diversity has come the great variety in cities and landscapes that makes them
an el dorado for historians, archaeologists, architectural historians and
historical geographers. Even so, it has to be acknowledged that to
accommodate people's ever-changing needs, the tradition of recreating the
land has also involved making drastic changes to many cities and landscapes.
Untouched historic landscapes are nonexistent; “stratified” land is the rule in
the Netherlands.
The enormous demand for space – comparable in large areas of the country
only to the spatial dynamics typical of metropolitan areas – means that a
cultural heritage policy aimed at preservation and restoration cannot be

2. successful in all cases. Of course, the Netherlands, too, is protecting,
restoring and whenever possible making its most exceptional buildings and
complexes accessible to the public. The Netherlands, too, is safeguarding its
most scenic landscapes from aspects that could damage their attractiveness.
And the Netherlands, too, is proud of its unique buildings and landscapes on
the UNESCO World Heritage List. But at the same time, the country is faced
with a need to build hundreds of thousands of homes, to realise business
parks for maintaining employment levels, to realise infrastructure for
ensuring mobility, to transform rural land for accommodating the latest
demands, and to regulate water management in such a way as to continue to
guarantee the safety of the inhabitants. New development, reuse and
restructuring: all are being applied to achieve these aims.
Each of these large-scaled and fragmenting spatial interventions has an
impact on the environment in which we live. And our cultural heritage is
always at issue in this process, whether it involves an underground Roman
archaeological site, a historic road, a unique area of historic importance in
regard to its water management, or a traditional post-war residential district.
For these dynamic situations, the usual methods of heritage management
aimed at preservation are less appropriate – if only because of the risk of
having a protected object become alien and isolated within a totally changing
environment. Such situations call for a different strategy: a strategy that gives
these objects the best possible place within unavoidable spatial development.
The Dutch heritage institution the National Service for Archaeology, Cultural
Landscape and Built Heritage (RACM); the Ministry of Education, Culture
and Science; the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality; the
Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, and the Ministry
of Transport, Public Works and Water Management acknowledge this
situation. For this reason, they initiated a move in 1999 to develop an
alternative strategy that would supplement (not replace!) the existing
preservation and protection strategy. This alternative strategy of
“preservation by development” was established in the form of the Belvedere
Memorandum.
The Belvedere strategy
The objective of the Belvedere strategy is to promote a respectful approach in
regard to cultural and historic values within spatial development. This is to be
accomplished neither by vetoing changes nor by burying the past, but by
seeking effective ways to create win-win situations: to use space in such a
way that an object of cultural and/or historic importance is given a place and
will contribute to the quality of its newly created surroundings. According to
the Belvedere approach, “cultural heritage has to be regarded as being of vital
importance to our society and to each individual citizen. The preservation and
use of our cultural heritage adds an extra cultural dimension to the spatial
structure. The heritage approach to be adopted in dynamic situations is one
that centres on inspiring development rather than conservation or
Analysing the ‘symphony’ of buildings and building replacement. This approach should be promoted and implemented by means
plots. Source: LA4Sale of the overall spatial policy.” The Belvedere strategy aims at achieving this
goal by involving heritage experts early in planning processes and by
providing architects, urban and rural planners, and administrators with
effective, usable (and understandable!) information. This strategy requires
acknowledging the legitimate importance of others in the planning process as
well as the need for a give and take attitude. It also requires an awareness of
the fact that the heritage experts has something to offer: making use of our
cultural heritage, both physically and as a source of inspiration, offers
planners and designers an opportunity to develop a plan with added value
- a design with its own unique identity and often with unexpected economic
applications.

3. The Belvedere strategy also advocates presenting “the past” (i.e. heritage) as
a single, undivided concern. Instead of considering buried archaeological
sites, historic buildings and historically important landscapes as separate
entities, they should be seen as a single integrated public concern: cultural
heritage.
The Belvedere approach has often proven to be appealing to inhabitants
who are normally resistant to rigorous large-scale changes, yet who also
realise that changes are necessary to meet their needs for housing, mobility,
employment, safety, etc. The Belvedere approach can be a vehicle for gaining
acceptance for spatial changes provided that these changes result in a familiar
living environment. The use of cultural heritage often results in support for
plans.
With this in mind, the Netherlands has developed two parallel cultural
heritage policies. One is the standard policy aimed at preserving and
protecting our cultural heritage by attempting to preserve, protect, restore and
make accessible buildings, archaeological sites, landscapes and townscapes.
But where this policy is unfeasible or undesirable (e.g. an archaeological site
in a business park, a residential district in need of restructuring, an industrial
complex receiving a new function), the Belvedere strategy comes into play.
With the huge demand for space in our country, this strategy is often both
more effective and more desirable in terms of the needs of society.
Mariaplaats, Utrecht Source: Gemeente Utrecht
How does the Belvedere strategy
work?
The Belvedere Memorandum applies to a ten-year period, from 2000-2010,
and has an annual budget of approximately €7,500,000. For the first five
years, more than half of this amount was dedicated to a subsidy scheme in
which provinces, municipalities and private organisations had access to
funding for research, information gathering and planning processes at the
local and regional level. On 1 January 2005, this annual subsidy budget was
reduced to € 1,400,000. In addition, € 500,000 is going directly to the large
cities for stimulating cultural heritage as part of urban renewal, and
€ 2,250,000 is going to the provinces to maintain, manage and strengthen the
scenic, historic, cultural and natural qualities of selected “national land-
scapes” chosen for their internationally rare and nationally characteristic
landscape qualities. More than € 1,300,000 is set aside for a national project
known as the New Dutch Waterline and € 1,900,000 is being dedicated to the
Belvedere Planning Office. These two latter budgets include funding for the

4. offices’ personnel and material expenses, as well as the activities both of
them conduct.
The activities of the Belvedere Planning Office are aimed at stimulating and
facilitating government authorities, non-profit organisations in the public
domain, architects, landscape architects and private industry to embrace the
Belvedere strategy. The planning office accomplishes this by stimulating
historical research, gathering and distributing information, promoting the
application of expertise and developing networks. The gathering of
information for making use of cultural history is accomplished in spatial
projects related to urban renewal, revitalising rural areas and improving water
management, and in certain model projects (the Roman Limes Project, the
New Dutch Waterline Project and the Lancewadplan Project). Belvedere
funding is also paying three part-time professors working at three universities
that are jointly responsible for education and research in applied cultural
history. The integrated source of cultural historic information KICH has a
website that provides planners, designers and commissioning parties with all
Dwelling mound Hogebeintum, Fryslân
Source: Dré van Marrewijk the data available from the the National Service for Archaeology, Cultural
Landscape and Built Heritage (RACM), the National Reference Centre for
Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV, department of knowledge' ), and
Alterra, a research institute for the natural environment. Information and
experiences are also shared by means of courses, workshops, publications
and networks.
During the first seven years, more then 300 projects were subsidised by
Belvedere funding. A carry-over effect has also been evident in national and
provincial spatial policies. Making use of our cultural heritage in
development plans is being considered everywhere in the Netherlands: from
the “national landscapes” to urban restructuring projects and from water
management plans to education. The tasks for the future will be aimed at
consolidating the successes achieved so far by continuing to develop specific,
usable information and instruments while reaching new target groups.
Although the Netherlands is still a country engaged in recreating its physical
environment, it is not losing sight of its past.
more information: www.belvedere.nu
Landscape and art: Beautifull Midden Delfland Source: Frits van Ooststroom