The Dutch landscape has been transformed over hundreds of years and forms a technical construction. It can be seen everywhere through dikes, locks, and pumping stations. This specific landscape treatment has ensured that Dutch people can live safely behind the dikes and dunes. Previously, technical boundaries between landscape and sea were clearly defined. It meant holding back the water as much as possible and has changed since the Oosterscheldekering in 1980. As a flexible 'dike,' it can now allow water to pass through on a large scale, but it can also safely hold back the sea at dangerously high tides. This flexible, technical way of dealing with the sea and the landscape has marked a fundamental change. For example, new types of landscapes are created within the dike by mixing salt and fresh water. We change our environment through our technical view of landscape and buildings. But the reverse is also the case. The varied landscape transforms people. We have called this the universal feedback loop of life. A flexible technical construction, a modern dike, only appears in our daily lives as a feedback system. A global sustainability center would also create a Universal feedback loop of life. U.F.O.L. must be.
