Netherlands

The Netherlands contributes engineering that became urbanism. Amsterdam's canal ring was laid out from 1613 as a single project financed by selling plots and taxed by frontage, which is why the houses are narrow and tall. Utrecht's wharfs sit a storey below the street so merchants could unload into their own cellars. Giethoorn's canals are peat diggings widened. Rotterdam chose not to reconstruct after 1940 and rebuilt as an argument instead.