An Ode To Manmade Land is a pair of viewpoints designed by Vector-I Architects on a man-made dyke at the Lauwersmeer National Park, in the Netherlands.
Created in collaboration with local artist Lambert Kamps, the two structures are designed to give views across the artificial landscape and to "provide new perspectives on rising sea levels".

Called The Viewing Dyke and The Periscope, the viewing platforms were built on the coastal path at Lauwersoog in the north-east of the Netherlands on an artificial dyke.
With the viewpoints, Ben van der Meer, founder of Groningen-based Vector-I Architects, hopes to draw attention to the issue of rising sea-levels and the fact that many of the Netherland's dykes may have to be increased in height in the near future.
"Raising the dykes is a serious matter that the Netherlands is facing," Van der Meer told Dezeen.
"We need to protect the country that lays below sea level. The installations visually address this matter."

The original dyke was built to enclose the Lauwers Sea in the 1960s after a series of floods in the early 1950s.
The Viewing Dyke is a 100-metre-long earth mound that has been created as an extension to the dyke between Lauwersoog's harbour on the Wadden Sea and the marina on the enclosed Lauwers Sea.

The wedge-shaped earth mound ends with a seven-metre-high timber staircase that acts as viewpoint over the natural and enclosed bodies of water.

By raising the height of the dyke Va...