Little known grids: Düsseldorf

Many cities have been laid out according to a grid plan. Most of these cities can be found in the America's, India, Asia and Australia. In Europe the urban grid is also prevalent, but in a more differentiated and sometimes distorted or remodeled manner. The grid plan has been a favorite through the ages for new settlements, colonies and expanding existing urban centers. The city of Düsseldorf is an example of the latter.

Located on the Rhine, the German city of Düsseldorf can be basically typified as a water city. The oldest city was constructed adjacent to a large riverside castle (Burg) next to the spot where the river Düssel joins the Rhine. The city was named after an earlier settlement further south. This fact is retained in the name; Düsseldorf literally means village (Dorf) on the bustling stream (Düssel). The first town was little more than a market square with a chapel within a rectangular wall erected around 1288.

In 1380 the Duke of Berg moved his seat to Düsseldorf and the town thus became the capital of the Duchy of Berg. When the city was first expanded a new town was created to the south and an existing suburb on the main gates where brought within the new city walls. The new walls were completed in 1384 encircled an area 500% bigger than before. The largest part of this enlarged city was taken up by the Neustadt (literally: New Town) a slightly irregular grid south of the northern arm of the Düssel.

Between 1394 and 1405 the southwestern part of the city was fortified. This included the area between the Neustadt and the southern mouth of the Düssel where a harbour had been constructed. In this area a new market place (Marktplatz) was constructed to replace the small square in front of the castle (Burgplatz).On the new square a new town hall (Rathaus) was erected.

In 1609 the ducal line of the United Duchies of Jülich-Cleves-Berg died out, and after a fierce struggle fell to the Counts of Palatine-Neuburg, who made Düsseldorf their main domicile. Between 1610 and 1620 a new citadel was added as a part of a fortification of the city with bulwarks and earthworks. This citadel is located just south of the harbour on the location of an older suburb. In 1648 the northern suburb beyond the monastery is drawn into the city by constructing new defenses around is.

Between 1707 and 1709 the fortifications are greatly extended with moats, scarps and glasis. On the south side these new fortifications are set back from the old defenses to make room for  a hospital and army barracks.  Only when the citadel was decommissioned the earlier plan could be executed to enlarge the city once more. In 1788 the Carlstadt was completed. Again a grid plan was chosen which incorporated the hospital and barracks. Also a new street was cut to connect Carlstadt with the Neustadt. This Mittelstraße (Middle Street) is a continuation of the central axis of the new urban quarter.

The development of the fortifications around the city of Düsseldorf.

After dismantling the fortifications around Düsseldorf at the beginning of the nineteenth century a broad boulevard was constructed on the eastern fringe of the city in 1811. The city could be beautified further by reworking the former moats and glacis into a park. In 1854 Friedrichstadt was built along the axis of the Esplanade (Könichsallee) on the southside of the city. Again a grid plan was chosen. This time in a regular and well spaced layout with room for squares. The eastern extensions have radiating streets and boulevards, emulating the example of Paris.

The succession of grid plans within the city of Düsseldorf.

Model Homes Exhibitions

Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, played host to the 1927 building exhibition by the German Work Federation (Deutscher Werkbund) on a site on the edge of the city near the old White Farm (Weißenhof). It became known as the Weißenhofsiedlung (literally: White Farm Settlement). It is a small estate comprising of only 60 dwellings in 21 separate buildings. A total of 17 architects worked on this model estate for Neues Bauen (New way of Building) by invitation of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The architecture is divers but highly consistent in detailing, with simple facades, roof terraces, ribbon windows, the lack of load baring partition walls, the use of steel window frames and a high degree of prefabrication. All but two buildings where colorless; the home designed by Bruno Taut was painted a bright red and Mart Stam's terraced row has a blue color. All the other building where painted in muted tones of grey or off-white. 

The Werkbund was an association of architects, designers and -importantly- industrialists whose principal aim was to establish a partnership between manufacturing and design in order to boost the competitiveness of German companies. The founding of the Werkbund was to prove an important event in the development of modern architecture and industrial design. With the creation of the Bauhaus school of design in 1919 the design vocabulary was rid of expressionist detailing and plasticity under the influence of the earlier Dutch artistic movement De Stijl (literally: The Style) and evolved into what is still considered modern architecture by most people today.

Not everyone was enthusiastic about this new way of building with its flat roofs, horizontal lines, open plan living, fold away room dividers, concrete rendering and bright coloring. Few people really embraced the new way of living advocated by the modernist architect. The problem being that they didn't just design new building with all manner of new gadgets and modern comforts, but also tried to dictate the way people lived in their buildings. 

The traditionalist counterpart to the Weißenhofsiedlung was built in 1933 on a site close by. This so-called Kochenhofsiedlung* was built under the guidance of the architect Paul Schmitthenner by himself and 22 selected architects. Together they designed 25 houses, most of them free standing, and a large school. Almost all selected architects belonged to the so-called Stuttgart School (1918-1940) or were affiliated with its traditionalist teachings at the Stuttgart Polytechnic (Technischen Hochschule Stuttgart). The school denounced historicism in architecture advocating a classical and conservative style of building. The construction and the materials used should show the work of the craftsmen who utilized his traditional skills and the natural materials available and thus give each building its shape. All houses are fitted with pitched roofs. Some are rendered. Some are clad in wood. But each building is  furnished with window shutters. The colors used are muted earth tones. Occasionally natural stone and slates are used as an embellishment.

Modern forms of building where resolutely rejected by the National Socialists (Nazi's), who heartily supported the erection of these traditional model homes. The build was also seized upon as a vehicle to support the German forestry industry. 

Comparing the design idiom of the Bauhaus (left) and the Stuttgart School (right) the contrast is clear.

* This model homes estate takes its name from the medieval Kochenhof, a name meaning Kitchen Farm.

Dorplein: a Walloon workers colony

 

The Ringselven lake now consists of four distinct parts, separated by bog and reed beds. It once formed an oblong circular lake, hence the name that means round fen.

The Carré Mulhousien were envisaged to be built in nine to ten strips. They are a form of back to back housing with four houses under one roof and people only having a garden on the side and front, separated from their neighbours by a breast high wall. In Dorplein they are very widely spaced allowing for many additions and lean-to's to be built over the years. The houses are now privately owned, which doesn't help their appearance that was once very uniform and almost austere.

The Carré Mulhousien houses were later replaced by semidetached houses in a similar Walloon style of building.

 

The large villas of the company officials are much larger than the housing provided for workers. The same Walloon vernacular is used here. These villas are all built along the Hoofdstraat (Main Street). The white villa of director Dor was the grandest of them all.

 

Also flanking Main Street is the imposing Hôtel St. Joseph a hospice that housed most of the young male workers. They were often immigrants from Wallonia. The hospice provided them with a place to sleep, a library, amusement and sport. It had a large dining hall. Behind it a fruit and vegetable garden was laid, aimed at providing for the hospices kitchen and bettering the workmen.

White collar personnel were housed near the factory in medium sized but rather grand looking houses on large garden plots. Note that they are semidetached houses built in the guise of a freestanding villa. Again they are built in the Walloon vernacular of brick, glazed brick and natural stone.

The furnace with its shining industrial chimney is visible from miles around. Here the view across part of the Ringselven (near the pumping pond) towards the zinc works.

Factory village: Le Projet de Place Dor

Dorplein is a factory village that was founded in 1892 on desolate heathland (Loozerheide) close to the border of Belgium and the Netherlands. This location was selected by the Belgian industrialists Francois Sepulchre and the brothers Lucien and Emile Dor who had previously been denied to build a zinc works in their native Liège. In the rural village of Budel they bought 628 hectares (1570 acres) of wasteland covered with heather, scrub and marsh. They later extended their landholdings to over 900 hectares. The isolated spot was selected because of the distance to existing settlements (zinc production was highly polluting), the presence of both a shipping canal and a goods railway and the backwardness of locals.

The canal (Zuid-Willemsvaart) and railway (IJzeren Rijn) were important for supplying the factory with coal and the raw ore and transporting the finished product to the customers. A natural lake -Ringeselven- was put to use as a reservoir for cooling-water. On the canal a harbour was dug. And a narrow-gauge railway connected the factory site to the goods railway. The factory was named Société Anonyme des Zincs de la Campine or Kempensche Zink Maatschappij in Dutch (translated: Campine Zinc Limited Company).

Providing housing for the factory workers was thought to be part of erecting a factory on the site. Named Le Projet de Place Dor the new village was designed by the company owner Emile Dor and named after himself. First simply called Nieuwdorp (the new village) the municipality changed the name to Dorplein (a literal translation of Place Dor) on September 5th 1893. Being private property the community would be closed off by a gate over the main road until 1963.

The layout of the new community was very formal. Within a large triangle the villa's for the owners were constructed next to a large hospice called Hôtel St. Joseph and several large houses for the white collar workers. For the factory workers a large colony was designed on the west side comprising of 9 strips for housing workers in four back-to-back houses on a plot between narrow lanes known as Carré Mulhousien. Of this type only two rows were completed. In the third row a nineteen twenties double row of semidetached houses was built. The older model was abandoned under the influence of garden city type housing.  The new village was situated to the west of the factory, safely away from the noxious fumes. Originally a church was also planned. This building wasn't constructed until 1952. Until that time a company chapel was located within the rotor building. A graveyard had already been laid out in advance. In this area sporting grounds had also been laid out.

The layout of Dorplein shows distinctly nineteenth century ideas on housing workmen in a private factory village. All classes are spatially segregated with the white villa of the company director at the heart of the village.

In 1917 a farm was erected behind the hospice known locally as De Stal (the Stables). It also included a fruit garden and an orchard. In 1918 a second farm Boszicht (Woodland View) was built that doubled up as a forestry office. It was situated on the edge of the Berenveld* (Berry Field) with 11 hectares (44 acres) of soft fruit plantations, cherry orchards and chicken run for 250 hens.

The factory village Dorplein is situated right next to the zinc works. It consists of a series of so-called Carré Mulhousien houses (in red). Next to this and central in the village is the white villa of Emile Dor himself (indicated by "v" on the map). Across was a strip reserved for a church and a graveyard at the end.(C). Around this sporting facilities (s) were put in place. next to the villa lay another strip of amenities including the hospice (1), the farm with vegetable garden (2) and the prison (3). Behind the prison a second director villa was built: called De Warande (w). Over time more villas were built between the white villa and the first strolling park (p). Another strolling park was planted as an extension of the berry fields (b) north of the small gauge railway track (r) that gave access to the factory  site (in yellow) and the harbour (h) on the Zuid-Willemsvaart. Between the sporting ground and the berry fields we find the second farm (4).  The small-scale development with semidetached houses (5) within the Mulhouse grid is distinct. After 1950 some wooden bungalows where added . The whole village is very spacious especially when compared to the neighbouring post war development to the west.

Until the 1950 French was the commonly spoken language. Both the directors and the original factory worker had come from Wallonia. The style of the buildings differs very much from what was usual in the area. As a gesture to their native area the houses were designed in a Walloon vernacular. This makes this factory village quite unique in the Netherlands.

*although locals explain the name Berenveld  as berry field by taking the German word for berry (Beere) and the Dutch word for field (Veld) this is incorrect. The Dutch word for berry is bei (Middle Dutch) or bes (Modern Dutch), the word "beer" means both bear, male pig (from the same root as boar) and muddy or slimy ground. A quick look at an old map shows that the area now called Berenveld used to be marshy heathland with some open water so the name is to be explained as an old toponym meaning: muddy field.