Early modern urbanism and the grid : town planning in the Low Countries in international context ; exchanges in theory and practice 1550 1800 From the late sixteenth century until around 1800 new ideas and practices of urban planning and the implementation of public buildings water works and fortifications from the Low Countries were disseminated across Europe and America. Engineers mathematicians and other scientists in the Low Countries applied methods of design and land surveying that were gradually assimilated and often modified following exchanges within local practice. In some cases models were projected onto the existing situation. This phenomenon of disseminating and exchanging theoretical models and practical methods between the Low Countries Europe and its colonies during this period developed into a new Early Modern Urbanism movement within the Western world