Perfect squares
The polder was divided into a pattern of squares; according to theoretical interpretations of the Antiquities and in the Dutch Renaissance a chequerboard pattern formed an utterly harmonious entity. Symmetry was considered to be ultimate perfection, certainly in the Golden Age, and this can be seen in the Beemster also. Roads and watercourses are at right angles to each other and alternate at 930-metre intervals. Those who organised the polder subdivided the large squares into elongated lots (ideally five per square). These could be leased by crop farmers and cattle farmers. The lots in the centre of the Beemster were 185 metres wide and 930 metres long. Lots deviated from this module only where the new polder bordered on the old land, but the regularity of the applied land division was none the worse for it.

Cheese-cover farmhouses
The impoldering was carried out during a period of great economic prosperity, the so-called Dutch Golden Age. During that time farmhouses were built in the polder, most in the shape of a dome typical of the region: virtually square, with (practically) all functions under one pyramidal-shaped roof. Merchants and patricians also had country houses built in the polder according to the Renaissance notions that predominated at the time: houses with rhythmically arranged facades, based on urban examples, and symmetrically laid out gardens. Most of these country houses were built in the south-eastern part of the polder. Little remains of these houses today; the estates were lost during the 18th and 19th centuries when hard times befell their owners. More (cheese-cover) farmhouses were built in their place. It is notable that several of them were given a somewhat urban appearance with their Dutch gables, or step-gables, made of brick. A considerable number of these farms and other historical buildings have been designated as national monuments.