Agnetapark, section two: a vernacular garden village on a regular layout

The twentieth century part of Agnetapark is both a factory village and a garden village. The formal layout echoes workers colonies in Essen by Krupp and the Campine workers colonies. The style of architecture is in line with Garden City Movement examples and firmly vernacular in character.  As in the older section, water is placed at the heart of the housing development. This is an early form of hydrologically neutral developing, a necessity in a low-lying polder.  

From the park the second park (a housing estate from the 1920s) has a formal gate to signify an entrance and formalise the distinction between the two sections of Agnetapark. The winged block forshortens the view and emphasises the curve in the street.  This with the gate feature are examples of Unwinesque design.

A view along low housing towards the higher block with apartments. As in the old sections the houses have small front gardens edged by a privet hedge. The colours of the woodwork have been recently restored and are based on classic colours used in farm buildings in Holland and Utrecht. With the use of the colours and the low roofline these buildings are similar to those used in other housing projects (Garden Village Ede and Spaarndammerbuurt).

The layout is formal with a grid of streets around a central public garden with a large pond in the middle of it. Low housing was built in terraces along both the northern and southern edge of this public garden. (Here: Vijver Noord).

Two close-like cul-de-sacs flank the Robert Coumansplein as extensions of the straight streets flanking the public garden with the pond. The houses are grouped in terraces in the typical style of the whole estate.

The R. Coumansplein is a garden square that has terraced housing on three sides. On the north side this public space abuts the factory site of the yeast factory. The streets are lined by pollarded limes,. This is in keeping with the vernacular theme of this estate. The garden square was -badly- redesigned in the 1980s (and is therefore not shown in this series of pictures). 

These daffodils have many cousins growing around the housing estate and in the park. Daffodils do especially well on these soils with high ground water levels. This type with an orange cup I find especially attractive. In several places these  gate-features break up the long terraces and give access to the paths that lead to the back gardens. Such back paths are a common feature in German and Dutch garden villages and suburban housing estates.

At either end of the public garden at the heart of the "second park" higher blocks have been placed to allow for a more varied spatial and functional make up of this estate. There are three such blocks with up-and-down housing (a ground floor flat with a duplex flat on the two storeys above. The blocks have been detailed as all the other architecture with a long strip of dormer windows providing light and air for the bedrooms underneath the roof.

Looking back across the central pond the other higher block at the other end can be seen. This housed workshops on the ground floor originally, but has now been converted into housing completely. The public garden is dominated by the elongated pond, with only a narrow strip of grass trees and shrubs around it.

A view back towards the public garden with the pond. The regular layout of the streets is quite evident here. Instead of pollarded limes, here pollarded plane trees have been used.

On the edge of the estate a block with commercial space on the ground floor and an apartment above dating from the 1960s has been replaced by a row of terraced housing in a style in keeping with the listed adjoining estate. The architects have done a good job as seen on the left. This is seldom seen in the Netherland where architects are trained to create contrasting interventions. Some of the housing in this second phase comprises of larger family housing for middle management. Again the front garden has a low privet hedge.

The Laan van Altena forms the southern edge of the second park. Part of the houses looks out over another pond. It actually isn't a pond but part of the drainage system around the old city of Delft. The listed building is a pumping station built here around 1930. The pond is in fact part of the Wetering (Dutch for a main drainage channel in a polder).

The area directly south of Agnetapark was developed for private housing. These dwellings were also built to house employees of the Yeast and Methylated Spirit Factory. They display a wide range of styles and also vary considerably in size and height.

This block on the edge of the old park was built instead of a planned row of middle-management cottages. It is similar to the other double height blocks, but was intended as family housing and not divided in two flats.

Agnetapark, section one: an ornamental mix of eclectic buildings in a verdant setting

The nineteenth century part of Agnetapark is both a factory village and a model village based on the ferme orné from garden design. It is a precursor to later factory housing and examples of the Garden City Movement. The oldest part of this housing estate was built between 1884 and 1892. The housing was completed in the first two years. The whole was designed as a settlement on the edge of a park with the directors villa taking centre stage. This model is comparable to Villa Hügel and the Siedlung Brandenbusch (of 1885) -albeit on a much smaller scale.

A view across the lawn of the park towards the spot where once the villa of the director of the Yeast and Methylated Spirit Factory stood. That building was converted to a school and extended in 1929, but was taken down in 1981. This lead to calls for the whole estate to become listed.

Jacob Cornelis van Marken and his wife Agneta Matthes founded both the factory and the housing estate for workers. Their busts have been placed within a small rose garden that now occupies the spot where first their villa 'Rust Roest' stood.

The core of the model village behind the villa was made up of several Mulhouse Quadrangles. The higher building at the centre originally comprised of 8 flats. The blocks around it are lower and were conceived as standard Mulhouse Quadrangles consisting of 4 separate dwelling under one roof. These buildings have been redeveloped with half the number of dwellings each.

This building known as "The Tent" replaces a wooden building on the edge of the serpentine lake. It was built in 1914 in brick to house the music hall and two cooperative shops. It's now used as a business premises.

This large block housed the park executive and workshops on the ground floor. It was built in 1886 and originally also housed a printing press. It is now home to a number of small businesses. The eclectic style of the building is typical of late nineteenth century urban architecture that combined reworked motifs with modern materials and structural innovations to create an aesthetic impression.

Behind the workshops new workshops were created in 1930 in this wooden building in the Holland vernacular known from the area north of Amsterdam (Waterland and Zaanstreek). The larger building housed the printing press. A cottage of 3 dwellings was demolished to make way for these buildings.

The Frederik Matthesstraat -named after the brother of Agneta Matthes - van Marken- curved around the Mulhouse Quadrangles. These are terraced cottages comprising 4 or 3 dwellings each. All have a small front garden with a privet hedge and identical wooden gates. These houses were completed in 1886. The cars lining the narrow street are indicative of the time this estate was planned [for factory workers that walked to work and didn't own any private means of transportation other than a bike].

The Mulhouse Quadrangles (now reduced to Mulhouse Doubles) are built in a similar style as the cottages with two colours of brick and arched features above the windows. The architecture references Dutch Renaissance architecture. A narrow street called Zierenstraat serviced the central dwellings of the Mulhouse Quadrangles and is now un unnamed path accessing the gardens.

Two larger block of terraced housing are located between the Mulhouse Quadrangles and the Pasteurstraat. The architecture is very similar to that of the cottages. The same privet hedges as used elsewhere create a semi-rural feel.

The cottages along the Pasteurstraat are identical to the other cottages. The front gardens are of a similar size and follow the narrow semicircular street. At the end of the Pasteurstraat a large ornamental gate reading AGNET APARK gives access to the park proper and separates the housing from the community building known as "De Gemeenschap". This building now houses a restaurant.

A view across the serpentine lake towards "De Lindenhof" (Lime House) the former community building. This building was erected between 1891 and 1892 in a style distinctly different from the rest of the housing estate. A turret indicates the entrance and gives this building its distinctive outline. All amenities were placed at some distance from each other around the park much like park follies or attractions.

Another view across the serpentine lake. Behind the (former) Mulhouse Quadrangles the buildings of the present yeast factory operated by DSM are clearly visible. The park itself is a standard small-scale landscape park with winding paths, clumps of trees groups of shrubs and areas of lawn. In some places early interest has been created by planting daffodils.

These semidetached houses were built to house overseers and more skilled workers. They are situates on the edge of the park. Originally more of these were planned, but it turned out that 5 of these dwellings were sufficient. The second development was partly built over these planned but never executed houses.

Agnetapark, Delft: the first garden village in Holland

Delft is a typical water city. Directly west of the old city of Delft in Holland lay the polder known as Voordijkshoornsche Polder. in 1847 the railway connecting Amsterdam via Harlem and Leyden with The Hague was continued to Rotterdam via Delft. This city grew on either side of a canal (drainage channel) that was dug between a natural creek -the Schie- and the Roman shipping channel known as Vliet that connected the Rhine with the Gantel Creek near the mouth of the Meuse. Such a drainage channel was known as a "delft" end was later renamed Delftse Vliet. The railway cut off a section of the polder on the side of the Delftse Vliet which was quickly developed for industrial use. In 1869 the engineer Jacob Cornelis van Marken, together with his wife Agneta Matthes, founds the Nederlandsche Gist- en Spiritusfabriek (Netherlands Yeast and Methylated Spirit Factory) between railway and shipping canal. 

The socially conscious entrepreneurial couple not only advocated reform, but took an active role in realising change. With this aim they purchased part of the Altena Farm on the other side of the railway to build better housing for their workers in 1881. The 9.9 acre plot was designed as a model village with a large villa for the company director Van Marken and his spouse and workers housing grouped together on one side of the site. The layout was designed by garden architect L.P. Zocher, who created a typical scaled down version of an informal landscape park with a central pond. The whole site was surrounded by a deep ditch to improve drainage. The soil that was excavated from the ponds and ditches was used to raise the sites of the housing. This is again an example of urban design based on garden design models.

In 1884 the NV Gemeenschappelijke Gronden  (Communal land Limited) was founded by Van Marken with the aim of building and renting healthy houses, boarding houses, workshops, shops, baths and laundries in the grounds of the Agnetapark.  The housing was designed by architects E.H Gugel -the German head of architecture at the Delft Polytechnic- and F.M.L. Kerkhoff. Construction started that in 1884 and the first dwellings were ready in 1885.

 

The model factory village of Agnetapark in its context. The development comprises of two spatially distinct sections with the oldest part directly adjacent to the railway tracks.The factory site is located east of the tracks near the Delftse Vliet, a shipping canal.

The enlightened industrialist Van Marken was closely involved in both the business and the housing project. He translated his motto "De fabriek voor allen, allen voor de fabriek" into practical measures such as a work council (1878), profit sharing by workers and a collective pension fund for all employees. The housing was also approached from the needs of workers and included several classes of housing and amenities located in three community buildings. De Gemeenschap (the community) housed a kindergarten, elementary school, a gym and a canteen. De Tent (the tent) housed two cooperative shops (green grocer and bakery) and a music hall. The third building is the villa that was extended and converted into a domestic science school for girls and a technical school for boys. The company also provided the residents of Agnetapark and other workers with a playground, bowling alley, shooting range, boathouse with rowing boats, bicycle club, a choir and brass band. The third international cooperative congress was held in Agnetapark. As a complete social scheme this project inspired later factory housing ('t Lansink, Philipsdorp, Heveadorp).

This factory village, where every house had its own garden, comprised of 78 dwellings. These were in part inspired by Mulhouse style housing known from workers colonies (in Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Genk, Maasmechelen, Dorplein, Heerlen, Hoensbroek and Landgraaf) and by workers cottages (again in Essen and in Britain). The whole was conceived as an ornamental village (a hameau, or ferme orné) with lower and higher buildings grouped together along curving streets on the edge of a pleasant park. There were 7 Mulhouse Quadrangles incorporated in the scheme with one taller block as a double Mulhouse Quadrangle with 4 apartments  on each of the two storeys. These houses have been changed by halving the number of dwellings per building. The other housing is typically in short terraces with protruding sections at the corners or at the centre.

The so-called "Second Park" was developed directly west of the first Agnetapark. Between 1925-28 a regular neighbourhood of workers housing was built around a central garden with pond. Low housing wraps around this square central space in regular fashion. On the side backing onto the "first park" the housing is higher and comprises of boven-onderwoningen (up - down dwellings). This section of Agnetapark took inspiration from garden villages but has few Unwinesque design features, except for the variable building line and the angled corners.

 

Most of Agnetaparks survives to this day. The park has been changed, the surrounding ditch has been filled in and not all buildings have survived. The old villa 'Rust Roest' which became a school (1) was demolished in 1981; as was the boat house (6). The communal shops (2) have been changed and the building has been extended. One block of semidetached cottages was demolished to make way for the print shop (3) in 1890. The other two community buildings 'De Gemeenschap' (4) and 'De Tent' (5) have been altered internally but still show their original frontage. On the edge of the park a café (7) was built. This has been extended, but remains in place. A few cottages along the southern edge were never built (shown in orange), instead the large extension of 'new park' (8) was built on the west side. The southern section is included in the conservation area of Agneta park and comprises of a few streets with private housing (9). The land was set aside for development by Agnetapark to allow middle class employees to build their own house. Agnetapark comprised solely of rented housing.   

Agnetapark is often called a garden village, but predates the book by Ebenezer Howard, that is the official start of the Garden City Movement and its spread. It is in fact a model village much like ones known from Britain or model factory housing as known from Germany.  Only the extension around the garden square can be seen as (kind of) a garden village. As the earliest Dutch example of paternalistic factory housing the whole estate was listed a monument and given protected status. It is actually one of the top 100 monuments defined by the Dutch Heritage Council. The houses have been lovingly restored and the combined estate is well worth a visit!