"I have in mind here the new Zuiderzee polders where one is aiming to create landscapes that will be aesthetically pleasing as well as useful". A 1940 speech by famous Dutch urban planner Cornelis van Eesteren offers a challenging prospect for the future of Dutch landscape architecture. "The garden architect, too, will need to prepare himself for undertaking a task in these developments. He will then discover large areas of undeveloped land. In saying this, I do not only mean that the scope of his work will merely extend to include many new targets; I mean above all that he will have to conquer them." Landscape architect Noël van Dooren and architectural historian Marieke Berkers unravel Van Eesteren's speech, and add a new perspective on how Dutch landscape architecture emerged after the Second World War as a profession succesfully taking a leading position in the transformation of the Dutch landscape towards the 21th century.