Valley inspiration

Part of my heritage is Dutch, however Holland is a very flat country without a lot of valleys to be found. So I am considering basing my location on one of the many canals found in Amsterdam and around the rest of the Netherlands.
At the moment I am thinking of having the architecture school bridging the canal, perhaps with various bridging points, since the canals are not very wide, with the 'meeting space' being a pontoon-style space which floats on the surface of the canal and is accessible via elevator from the above bridge (as per the brief).