Dikes are the framework of the Dutch landscape. But even though there are so important, no book has been written about it. That is why the landscape architects of LOLA Landscape wrote it: Dutch Dikes. I contributed to this issue by writing an essay: dikes as a source of innovation. 

A film, an app, an artwork, a Twitter-campaign, a product: those are just a few examples of social design with water. They can get an issue on the agenda, create a community and launch new products. For the book compiled by Anne van der Zwaag on social design, Looks Good Feels Good Is Good, I wrote the chapter on water. The world is ready for designers who, rather than adding yet another chair to what is already there, devote their time and creativity to solving the world’s (water) problems.

In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, PBS – the American Public Broadcasting System – came to the Netherlands to learn about the Dutch approach to water. How should the New York region protect itself from the next Sandy? Thanks to my book ‘Sweet&Salt: Water and the Dutch’ I was one of the people interviewed. I talked about the Dutch attitude to water as a ‘frenemy’. In Europe only the trailer can be viewed: ‘Nova: Megastorm Aftermath’.

A year after Crown Prince Willem Alexander accepted the first copy of ‘Sweet&Salt: Water and the Dutch’ and opened the exhibition in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, the book – now in its third printing – is receiving prizes and praise.

After Hurricane Sandy, the New York Times wrote an article ‘Going with the flow’ related to my book ‘Sweet&Salt”. It discusses how the Dutch approach to water management can serve as an example for the United States.

When a cow gives more than 100.000 liters of milk during her lifetime, her owner gets a small silver-colored statuette with a plaque with her name on it. Dairy farmer Nol Hooijmaijers and his wife Wil have had three of these prize animals: Mies 30, Henny 144 and Pietje 60. Their statues take pride of place on the countertop in their brand-new kitchen.

The Dutch are the canaries in the global-warming coalmine, writes James Russell in his review of Sweet&Salt: Water and the Dutch in the December print issue of Architectural Record. ‘Sweet&Salt is a profoundly humanistic consideration of the culture of water, with many ideas by designers about how to deal with water’s myriad challenges.’ He describes the book as ”an intensely visual consideration of the history, culture and engineering of water that engages our senses and our emotions – not just our intellect – with its ravishing photography, cartography and art.” He is manifestly relieved that it is possible to talk about water issues and climate change without having to put on a hair shirt. 

Sweeet&Salt: Water and the Dutch is ‘a beautiful and important book’, writes Armando Carbonell of the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy in his review of the book for the Loeb Fellowship site. ‘The ever-increasing Dutch reliance on engineering solutions to keep the water at bay does not come without costs, and they go beyond the never-ending building and maintenance of structures. There are increasing conflicts between the sweet and the salt, with serious worries about  fresh water for drinking and agriculture.’ And now comes the ‘hot breath of climate change’, with a higher sea level, bigger storm surges and more extreme rainfall events. The Dutch response? Not so much the widely touted building with nature, says Carbonell, but rather: engineering with nature.