Stadswording in de Lage Landen van de tiende tot de vijftiende eeuw. Een overzicht aan de hand van vijfhonderd jaar ruimtelijke inrichting

Although occasionally united, the Low Countries were and are a conglomeration of Dutch speaking states whose origins mostly lie in medieval times. Actually, the Low Countries coincide with the Netherlands, Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium) and the far north-western part of France. They are situated along the North Sea coast line and lie at the mouths of important rivers such as the Rhine, the Meuse and the Scheldt. Thanks to this excellent geographical situation the Low Countries have been one the most urbanized regions of Europe since medieval times. Since several decades, urban history is a booming discipline and it is studied from numerous perspectives, in the Low Countries as well as abroad. In the Low Countries, this flourishing state of affairs is in sharp contrast with the lack of academic interest in urban morphology. The analysis of medieval urban form receives only little attention from Dutch and Belgian scholars and there is a lack of comparative research. After reviewing published town atlases and related atlas series and urban monographs (Fig. 1), this article provides a comparative overview of urban genesis within the Low Countries, in an analysis of town plans by Jacob van Deventer (around 1550 - Figs. 3-9). From the 10th until the 14th century, an impressive number of towns of all kinds and sizes were established (Fig. 2). This is the period of town formation in the Low Countries. Until the 14th century, the Southern part of the Low Countries was the most important, but later the Northern part, especially Holland, gradually became the core area of urbanization. During the 14th century, new groups of towns blossomed in the North, while at the same time the genesis of towns in the South came to a standstill. These are only the first results of a very rough comparative analysis. To obtain a better insight and to explain the genesis of these groups of towns, and to get a grip on the urban form, more comparative and synthetic research is needed. This future research should focus on urban form and its transformations, not only within the context of general assumptions about economic prosperity and trading routes, but even more with regard to the genesis of various groups of towns with a comparable plan, their location in specific landscapes and well-intended policies by lords, merchants and burghers – all this in the light of processes of change, like the gradual shift of the genesis of towns from the South of the Low Countries to the North

Historische atlassen, stads-monografieën en het onderzoek naar de ruimtelijke transformatie van Nederlandse steden

Over the past few years, historical atlases (each entitled Historische Atlas) have appeared of nine Dutch cities: Nijmegen (2003), Rotterdam (2004), Arnhem (2005), ’sHertogenbosch (2005), Maastricht (2005), Utrecht (2005), The Hague (2006), Haarlem (2006), and Groningen (2009). The publishers, SUN, have announced that more will follow: the series will in any case include Amsterdam, Leeuwarden, Walcheren (Middelburg and the island’s other towns), Leiden, Zutphen and Venlo. An earlier series of atlases (each entitled Histor­ische stedenatlas), published between 1982 and 2003, dealt with seven Dutch cities. In addition, a large number of urban monographs have appeared, most of them in the past ten years. A critical review of these atlases and monographs is long overdue. The following article seeks to remedy this omission. It will briefly describe the two atlas series and the monographs and consider them in relation to each other, the aim being to establish the general significance of these publications to comparative historical research on cities. This comparative research is still in its infancy in the Netherlands, as is clear from the recent publication Erfgoedbalans.1 There is an abysmal lack of wideranging studies in this field. The question at the heart of this article is: what is the value of these city atlases and urban monographs to research on the longterm spatial transformation of Dutch cities − that is, from the 11th to the 21st century?In de afgelopen paar jaar verscheen van negen Nederlandse steden een zogenaamde Historische atlas bij Uitgeverij SUN, namelijk van Nijmegen (2003), Rotterdam (2004), Arnhem (2005), ’sHertogenbosch (2005), Maastricht (2005), Utrecht (2005), Den Haag (2006), Haarlem (2006) en Groningen (2009). De uitgever heeft aangekondigd dat er in ieder geval nog atlassen gaan verschijnen van Amsterdam, Leeuwarden, Walcheren (Middelburg en de andere steden op het eiland), Leiden, Zutphen en Venlo. Al eerder, tussen 1982 en 2003, werd van zeven Nederlandse steden een zogenaamde Historische stedenatlas gemaakt. Daarnaast zag in vooral de laatste tien jaar een aanzienlijk aantal stadsmonografieën het licht. Het is de hoogste tijd om enige aandacht te besteden aan deze atlassen en monografieën. Dit wordt gedaan door de beide atlassenseries en de monografieën kort te typeren en te bekijken hoe de drie reeksen zich tot elkaar verhouden, met als doel de betekenis ervan voor het vergelijkend stadshistorisch onderzoek in hoofdlijnen te kunnen duiden. Dat vergelijkend onderzoek staat in Nederland nog in de kinderschoenen, zoals moge blijken uit de recentelijk verschenen Erfgoedba­lans. Er is een schrijnend gebrek aan overzichtsstudies. In deze beschouwing staat de volgende vraag centraal: wat is de waarde van de stedenatlassen en de stadsmonografieën voor het onderzoek naar de ruimtelijke transformatie van de Nederlandse steden over de lange termijn (elfde – 21ste eeuw)

Hollands erfgoed: De stand van het onderzoek naar de geschiedenis van architectuur, stedenbouw en cultuurlandschap

In its recent publication Erfgoedbalans, the new National Service for Archaeology, Cultural Landscape and Built Heritage (RACM) provides a national overview of its three areas of responsibility: built heritage, manmade landscape and archaeological heritage.1 A general introductory chapter on heritage and heritage conservation is followed by chapters on the heritage stock in the Netherlands and the state of its conservation. The fourth chapter is about the present state of knowledge and gaps in it, while the fifth discusses education and public relations. This is followed by a chapter on spatial trends and another about policy. The final chapter discusses a number of specific topical themes, such as the consequences of the Malta Convention, the Belvedere Plan, the reuse and preservation of historical buildings and structures, and funding issues. The volume closes with an atlas section with a number of thematic maps for each province. This article will not summarize the entire content of the Erfgoedbalans. Given the theme of the journal OverHolland, we shall focus on the state of research on the history of architecture, urban planning and the manmade landscape, especially in the provinces of North and South Holland, within the wider context of the Netherlands. A brief review of the background that led to the Erfgoedbalans will be followed by a section on the heritage stock − that is, the buildings, sites and landscapes that are considered to be of value, whether or not these enjoy protected status, before considering the state of research on this heritage. Onlangs verscheen de Erfgoedbalans, waarin de Rijksdienst voor Archeologie, Cultuurlandschap en Monumenten (RACM) een overzicht op nationale schaal geeft van de drie thema’s waarmee de nieuw gevormde rijksdienst zich bezighoudt: gebouwd erfgoed, cultuurlandschap en archeologisch erfgoed.1 Na een algemeen inleidend hoofdstuk over erfgoed en erfgoedzorg volgen hoofdstukken over de voorraad en de staat van het erfgoed in Nederland. Het vierde hoofdstuk gaat over kennis en kennislacunes, het vijfde over publiek en educatie. Daarna volgen een hoofdstuk over ruimtelijke ontwikkelingen en een over beleid. In het laatste hoofdstuk komen enkele specifieke actuele thema’s aan de orde, zoals de effecten van het verdrag van Malta, Belvedere, herbestemming en instandhouding van monumenten en de financiering daarvan. De balans sluit af met een atlasdeel, waarin per provincie een aantal thema’s in kaarten is weergegeven. In dit artikel geven we geen samenvatting van de complete inhoud van de Erfgoedbalans. Gezien de thematiek van OverHolland spitsen we het toe op de stand van het onderzoek naar de geschiedenis van architectuur, stedenbouw en cultuurlandschap, in het bijzonder in de provincies Noord en Zuid-Holland, binnen de context van heel Nederland. Nadat we kort de voorgeschiedenis van de Erfgoedbalans hebben belicht, wijden we een paragraaf aan de voorraad, waarmee (al dan niet beschermde) waardevolle gebouwen, gezichten en landschappen worden bedoeld, om vervolgens in te gaan op de stand van onderzoek naar die voorraad

Boekbespreking

Jerzy Gawronski (ed.)Amsterdam Ceramics: a city’s history and an archaeological ceramics catalogue 1175-2011 Amsterdam, Bas Lubberhuizen, 2012, 336 pp. Peter Jan KnegtmansAmsterdam: een geschiedenis (‘Amsterdam: a history’)Amsterdam, SUN, 2011, 440 pp.   Peter Jan Knegtmans Amsterdam: een geschiedenis (‘Amsterdam: a history’) Amsterdam, SUN, 2011, 44Jaap Evert Abrahamse en Jan van DoesburgJerzy Gawronski (red.)Amsterdam Ceramics. A city’s history and an archaeological ceramics catalogue 1175-2011 Amsterdam (Bas Lubberhuizen) 2012, 336 pp.P.J. KnegtmansAmsterdam. Een geschiedenisAmsterdam (SUN) 2011, 440 pp.   Peter Jan Knegtmans Amsterdam: een geschiedenis (‘Amsterdam: a history’) Amsterdam, SUN, 2011, 4

De ruimtelijke volwassenwording van de Hollandse stad (1200-1450): Een vergelijkende analyse van het ontstaan van de contouren van de Randstad aan de hand van stadsplattegronden

In the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth century the Dutch landscape underwent a major spatial transformation. In a relatively short space of time, large areas of hitherto inaccessible peatland were reclaimed and made suitable for agriculture and habitation. In the thirteenth and fourteenth century this was quickly followed by urbanisation. The urbanisation process was remarkably rapid, and a great deal has already been written about the growth of Dutch towns. However, the emphasis has mainly been on administrative, economic and social changes during this period. Studies of the spatial dimension, especially comparative ones, have been rare.Het Hollandse landschap vertoonde in de elfde, twaalfde en dertiende eeuw een grote ruimtelijke dynamiek. In betrekkelijk korte tijd werden grote delen van het ontoegankelijke veen ontgonnen en geschikt gemaakt voor landbouw en bewoning. In de dertiende en veertiende eeuw vond vervolgens een proces van verstedelijking plaats. De snelheid waarmee dat gebeurde was opzienbarend, en over de groei van het aantal steden en de omvang ervan is dan ook al veel geschreven. De aandacht ging daarbij vooral uit naar de bestuurlijke, economische en sociale omslag in deze periode. Studies naar de ruimtelijke dimensie, zeker in vergelijkend perspectief, zijn echter schaars

OverHolland 10/11:

This edition of OverHolland is a good deal thicker than usual, as befits a celebratory issue. The editors have decided to make it a double issue, which at the same time makes clear that the OverHolland series will not end with No. 10. When the series began seven years ago, a contract was signed for the publication of ten issues. The achievement of that goal certainly warrants a celebration – but that is no reason to bring the series to an end. The editors and publishers will make every effort to ensure that it continues. ‘OverHolland – Architectural studies for Dutch cities is a series published on the joint initiative of the Department of Architecture at Delft University of Technology and SUN Publishers. The editors and publishers plan to publish two issues a year. The field of architectural research covered by the series includes both typological and morphological urban research and the question of architectural interventions in the context of Dutch cities.’ This was OverHolland’s ‘mission statement’ when it was launched. As it turned out, two issues a year was rather too ambitious a target, but that was not for lack of commitment. The standard of quality the editors sought often entailed more preparatory work, and in the past two years, there have also been considerable funding difficulties. However, OverHolland has proved highly popular, especially with urban historians and geographers, and has thus become a platform for the exchange of research between various disciplines. As this issue goes to show, OverHolland’s programme is by no means exhausted. Much of issue 10/11 is devoted to an exploration of the main changes in the area that is now the Randstad between 800 and 2000. Changes in the landscape, habitation patterns and infrastructure are shown in six maps that indicate the situation in 800, 1200, 1500, 1700, 1900 and 2000. These ‘snapshots’ provide an overall picture of (a) the history of habitation and the urbanisation process and (b) changes in landscape and infrastructure. The study follows on from earlier texts published by Henk Engel and Reinout Rutte in issues 2 and 3 of OverHolland. ‘Twelve centuries of spatial transformation in the western Netherlands’ is the result of a joint study carried out from March 2008 to February 2011 by the University of Amsterdam’s Historical Geography research group and the Urban Architecture and History sections (Institute of History of Art, Architecture and Urbanism, IHAAU) at Delft University of Technology’s Faculty of Architecture. The maps and texts were produced in close consultation, the various tasks being divided up as follows. Guus Borger and Frits Horsten provided abundant source material for the maps and wrote most of the text. Otto Diesfeldt, Iskandar Pané and Arnoud de Waaijer drew the maps and wrote the accompanying technical explanations. Henk Engel and Reinout Rutte initiated and supervised the project, edited the articles, contributed texts on the towns and cities concerned and wrote the explanations for the 1900 and 2000 maps. The editors and publishers wish to thank the Netherlands Architecture Fund for funding this issue. This double issue also contains articles by three PhD students. Nikki Brand and Kim Zweerink take a closer look at the period 12001500, the centuries during which the urban system in what is now the Randstad began to take shape. Following on from her article in OverHolland 9, Nikki Brand traces the emergence of the waterway network and investigates how it may have influenced the development of the nine main towns in the area: Amsterdam, Haarlem, Leiden, The Hague, Delft, Rotterdam, Dordrecht, Gouda and Utrecht. Kim Zweerink examines how the layout of these towns evolved and uses the location of urban institutions to show the initial development of town centres. Esther Gramsbergen looks at how the development of urban institutions affected the layout of a single city, Amsterdam, which in the sixteenth century assumed a predominant position with Holland’s urban system, and whose urban institutions displayed the most differentiated development from then on. Following earlier studies on the areas around the Dam square (in OverHolland 3) and the Binnengasthuis hospital (in OverHolland 6), Gramsbergen now examines the Plantage district. After the city council had launched Amsterdam’s Fourth Expansion in 1662 in response to robust population growth, the city’s development rapidly slowed, and after the Dutch Republic’s annus horribilis 1672 it came to a complete (albeit temporary) halt. The area east of the River Amstel remained vacant, and the city council decided to create the Plantage and establish the ‘Hortus Botanicus’ (botanical garden) there. In the nineteenth century, this first ever deliberately designed urban green space was to become a testing ground for cultural and educational institutions. Esther Gramsbergen’s study follows an article by Freek Schmidt. This discusses the emergence of private country homes in Watergraafsmeer and the accompanying cultural components, which also guided Amsterdam’s city fathers when creating the Plantage and the botanical garden. Robert Cavallo then provides an introduction to a number of graduation projects for the redesign of the area adjoining the Plantage, Roeterseiland, home to many of the University of Amsterdam’s buildings since the late nineteenth century. OverHolland 10/11 concludes with two book reviews. Herman van Bergeijk reviews Jaap Evert Abrahamse’s dissertation De grote uitleg van Amsterdam. Stadsontwikkeling in de zeventiende eeuw (‘The Great Expansion of Amsterdam: urban development in the seventeenth century’), and Anton Kos discusses Bas van Bavel’s recent study Manors and Markets. Economy and Society in the Low Countries, 500-1600

OverHolland 12/13:

OverHolland 12/13 opens with an article by the Spanish architect Gabriel Carrascal Aguirre on ‘The space of cartography’ – the subject of his dissertation for the Villard d’Honnecourt International Doctorate in Architecture Ph. D. programme in Venice in 2011. He defends the view that cartography should never be treated as a neutral research instrument, for every map is a well-defined reading of reality and as such can form a link between research and design. This view is well-illustrated in Like Bijlsma and Eireen Schreurs’s article ‘Harvesting’. Even though the recent economic crisis has put an end to the largescale development of city districts, the two architects’ design for the Dutch city of Haarlem shows that there are still plenty of ways to revitalise cities. A close reading of urban expansion on the eastern side of Haarlem has revealed numerous starting points for a different approach based on hitherto unexploited assets in the area. This approach is broadly outlined in the explanatory section. Not that it is altogether new. In earlier articles for OverHolland, Esther Gramsbergen has shown that various places in Amsterdam were repeatedly the scene of architectural interventions in the successive periods of its urban development. Under constantly changing conditions, the Dam square, the monastery and convent district and the Plantage were triggers for the development of new urban institutions such as the Stock Exchange, the Binnengasthuis hospital and the Illustrious School (the forerunner of today’s University of Amsterdam). In her article for this issue of OverHolland, ‘Putting science on the map’, Gramsbergen explains the transformation of the Plantage in the course of the nineteenth century, focusing in particular on King Louis Bonaparte’s ambitions for the area and the later development of the Artis zoo. This was the closing chapter of her dissertation for the Villard d’Honnecourt programme in Venice in 2011, entitled Inner fringe belts and the formation of the knowledge infrastructure in Amsterdam, 1578-1880. Cartography is also an ideal way to gain insights on a higher scale into the interplay of landscape and urbanisation. Following on from Freek Schmidt’s ‘Dutch Arcadia: Amsterdam and villa culture’ in OverHolland 10/11, Gerdy Verschuure lays the foundations for a broader landscape typology analysis of country estates in North and South Holland. Her article ‘A pleasing view’ focuses on the role of landscape features in the composition of the design for various country estates. Reinout Rutte and Henk Engel then explore, from the point of view of historical geography, two areas that are now peripheral to the Randstad. Rutte’s ‘Four hundred years of urban development in the Scheldt estuary’ sets out to identify the changes in navigation routes and trade flows that affected the distribution pattern and development of towns in the southwestern delta. As for Henk Engel, he takes a closer look at the area of Holland north of the River IJ. His ‘Distribution of towns, cities and infrastructure in Holland’s Northern Quarter up to around 1700’ examines how existing literature on the area has attempted to grasp the relationship between geographical environment, socioeconomic developments and political events. Finally, some of the themes in this issue of OverHolland form the basis for the book reviews in the ‘Polemen’ section. Jaap Evert Abrahamse and Jan van Doesburg discuss Jerzy Gawronski’s Amsterdam Ceramics and P. J. Knegtmans’s Amsterdam: een geschiedenis (‘Amsterdam: a history’), with critical commentary on both publications. And Herman van Bergeijk wonders whether Balans tussen stad en platteland (‘Striking a balance between town and country’), a fourvolume study of the deurbanisation of Zeeland between 1750 and 1850 by Paul Brusse, Jeanine Dekker, Arno Neele and Wijnand Mijnhardt, really does provide a new template for Dutch history