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A Dutchman and his man-made mountain

36 points by docdeek 6y ago

thdrdt 6y ago
I believe everybody knew there was not going to be a mountain. But people are curious creatures. The main question became: can it be done? It is interesting a lot of money was put into the project while most people knew there would never be a mountain. But they learned so much from it. So I think you can't say it was a waste of time and money. But for the coming years I still believe the Netherlands (lower countries) will remain flat.
- soperj 6y ago
  They made a ski-hill in saskatchewan, which is definitely as flat as the netherlands.
  - mkl 6y ago
    There seem to be two artificial ski hills there, both quite small in comparison to this proposal, Timber Ridge and Blackstrap Ski Hill (closed), but also quite a few non-flat natural ski areas [1]. I think they have better building materials available than the Netherlands, though, which was proposing to use sand (dredged from the sea floor?). [1] https://www.skicentral.com/saskatchewan.html https://www.skicentral.com/saskatchewan.html
- DonHopkins 6y ago
  It's a much better idea than building a wall!
  - LyndsySimon 6y ago
    Without walls (dikes), I’m not sure the Netherlands would even exist...
- timwaagh 6y ago
  Back in the day people did believe in it. People wanted it. That's why there was money. Whether it was a waste depends on where the money came from. For a scientist, doing work related to something in the media can help their career. For a uni, it can raise their profile. For a building company it would have been questionable though. Some of it was wasted, no doubt.
phyzome 6y ago
“It had become more of an innovation platform than a building project; it was used by scientists and universities to think outside the box.” OK, I love whimsy and spitballing of wild ideas as much as the next person, but... innovation platform? Did anything actually come out of this? New ideas that have been put into use? Research that changed how we understand things? A focal point for education of the public, even? I love the idea, but I see nothing in this article that backs the spirit of the claim "a meeting of minds that sparked a new wave of innovation in the Netherlands". Design is cheap. And this appears to have never gotten out of the early CAD & Photoshop phase. It's fine to just say "it was a wild idea and we had a lot of fun thinking about it".
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- lowdose 6y ago
  The piramides must have been a very strange idea from the start. Transporting larger than life stones to build an abstract geometric monument. Im glad they did because it speaks to imagination to build the impossible. Imagine a mountain as high as the Alpes still standing there in 10.000 years. I also think the first people to build dikes where seen as a bit strange. You are well aware that industry has made the dutch engineering name in the world.
  - phyzome 6y ago
    OK, but... they didn't build the mountain. It's only the existence of the pyramids that inspires. We don't have any records of the amazing, inspiring, innovative plans to build the pyramids—or at least, if we do, they sure don't have cultural currency.

36 points by docdeek 6y ago

I believe everybody knew there was not going to be a mountain. But people are curious creatures. The main question became: can it be done? It is interesting a lot of money was put into the project while most people knew there would never be a mountain. But they learned so much from it. So I think you can't say it was a waste of time and money. But for the coming years I still believe the Netherlands (lower countries) will remain flat.

soperj 6y ago
They made a ski-hill in saskatchewan, which is definitely as flat as the netherlands.
- mkl 6y ago
  There seem to be two artificial ski hills there, both quite small in comparison to this proposal, Timber Ridge and Blackstrap Ski Hill (closed), but also quite a few non-flat natural ski areas [1]. I think they have better building materials available than the Netherlands, though, which was proposing to use sand (dredged from the sea floor?). [1] https://www.skicentral.com/saskatchewan.html https://www.skicentral.com/saskatchewan.html
DonHopkins 6y ago
It's a much better idea than building a wall!
- LyndsySimon 6y ago
  Without walls (dikes), I’m not sure the Netherlands would even exist...
timwaagh 6y ago
Back in the day people did believe in it. People wanted it. That's why there was money. Whether it was a waste depends on where the money came from. For a scientist, doing work related to something in the media can help their career. For a uni, it can raise their profile. For a building company it would have been questionable though. Some of it was wasted, no doubt.

phyzome 6y ago

“It had become more of an innovation platform than a building project; it was used by scientists and universities to think outside the box.” OK, I love whimsy and spitballing of wild ideas as much as the next person, but... innovation platform? Did anything actually come out of this? New ideas that have been put into use? Research that changed how we understand things? A focal point for education of the public, even? I love the idea, but I see nothing in this article that backs the spirit of the claim "a meeting of minds that sparked a new wave of innovation in the Netherlands". Design is cheap. And this appears to have never gotten out of the early CAD & Photoshop phase. It's fine to just say "it was a wild idea and we had a lot of fun thinking about it".

deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
lowdose 6y ago
The piramides must have been a very strange idea from the start. Transporting larger than life stones to build an abstract geometric monument. Im glad they did because it speaks to imagination to build the impossible. Imagine a mountain as high as the Alpes still standing there in 10.000 years. I also think the first people to build dikes where seen as a bit strange. You are well aware that industry has made the dutch engineering name in the world.
- phyzome 6y ago
  OK, but... they didn't build the mountain. It's only the existence of the pyramids that inspires. We don't have any records of the amazing, inspiring, innovative plans to build the pyramids—or at least, if we do, they sure don't have cultural currency.