Middelheim Sculpture Park, Antwerp

Lode Craeybeckx, mayor of Antwerp, instigated the foundation of an open air museum for sculpture in the Middelheim Park. Since 1951 this museum is located in the grounds of the former Middelheim Estate, which since 1910 has been part of the Nachtegalenpark (literally: Nightingale Park) that also comprises of the Vogelenzangpark (Bird Song Park) and Park den Brandt (Tinder Park). The former Middelheim Estate is comprised of a northern (Middelheim-Laag) and a southern (Middelheim-Hoog) section separated by  a long avenue. The Manor house is located along this central avenue on a moated site. The classicist French architect  Barnabé Guinard (1734-1805) is said to have designed the building that sits on medieval footings of a castle keep that once stood here.

Within the natural surroundings of the park the aim was to give visitors an impression of modern sculpture through the decades. At its conception the Middelheim Sculpture Park was a one of a kind with its free admission and overall recreational character thus integrating a people's park with a cultural exhibition. The various sculptures are spread across the park with temporary exhibits in the Floraliën (a flower garden) and the Braem Pavilion.

left: Heracles the archer by Bourdelle (1909) middle: Middelheim Manor right: Misconceivable by Erwin Wurm (2010).

left: Dialogue by Albert Szukalski (1974) middle: The Black Sheep by Johan Muyle (2010) right: Modelhäuser Typ Bomarzo by Timm Ulrichs (2001).

left: Mantis by Germaine Richier (1946) middle: Lust for Life by Hildo Krop (1952) right: Beam Drop Antwerp by Chris Burden (2009).

Lelystad, a new city three meters below sea level.

At the heart of the new polders in the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea) a large city was drawn to serve as the new provincial capital. This new city was named Lelystad after the man who came up with feasible plans to empolder large parts of this sea bay: Cornelis Lely. After the Northeast Polder was drained in 1942 the German Occupation halted further work on the other polders within the Zuiderzeewerken. In 1950 work started on a large construction island wich was to become Lelystad-Haven to build the vast dyke that would encircle the new polder. It was decided that because of the vast size of this Southeast Polder construction would be split in two phase: a northern and southern portion. Lelystad is located in the first of these, in what is now the Oostelijke Flevopolder (Eastern Flevo Polder - named after the Flevo Lake of Roman times). This polder wasn't connected to the old land but separated from it by a border lake to prevent excessive drainage. The polder dyke was finished in 1955 and drainage by means of three large pumping stations started. In 1957 the new land fell dry and for the next 10 years the only inhabitants of Lelystad would be the technicians and engineers that lived on the various construction islands now part of the polder. Building work on the new city planned according to CIAM principles started in 1967, although planners and architects changed the plans some 10 years later to conform to the changing ideas on urban planning.

As the Southern Sea was the main shipping route connecting Amsterdam to Scandinavia and the Baltic, many ship wrecks were found on the former sea floor after empoldering. Lelystad therefore houses the Dutch National Centre for Maritime History with a museum and a shipyard that builds replicas of 17th century vessels with old methods. Both are located next to the modern day harbour and marina of Lelystad

The replica of the Batavia (on the left) is moored in front of the museum. In the shipyard a new vessel is under construction (middle). This is the Zeven Provinciën, Michiel de Ruyters Flagship. The shipyard is directly opposite the Lelystad marina (right).

Nagele: a modernist polder village

The large central open space is bordered on the west side by a double row of lime trees that tie in this central green with the green belt around the village. The trees also separate the housing from the amenities on the edges of the green.

In accordance with official policy all denominations should be provided with their own church, so Nagele was fitted out with three churches: one catholic and two protestant ones (Lutheran and Calvinist). Each church was designed as a large hall with a bell tower. Both protestant churches have free standing belfries. The catholic church (now a museum) is topped with a carillon.  

The large open green space at the heart of Nagele creates an enormous sense of space and air. This feature sets this new village very much apart from the traditionalist new villages that all have a more densely built-up centre conform historic examples.

Some housing has been placed front to back separated not by narrow paths and front garden as is so often the case, but by these wide strips of greenery (left). Here the strip is laid to grass with a row of trees. Originally low growing shrubs also were part of these green strips. All the houses in Nagele have a flat roof and consist of prefabricated building elements (right).

The central green feels like a central park as all the amenities like schools and churches are located along the edges. Thus is becomes a very usable space for the inhabitants that both separates and connects the housing clusters around it.

The back to front terraces are used to connect the public garden of each housing cluster with the surrounding green belt. the walking paths that give access to the houses run on through the woodland that also serves as a windbreak in this flat en very windy polder.

The design team of Nagele preferred terraced housing of two storeys. the often long terraces are composed of identical dwellings that together form the urban backdrop to the greenery. All houses have small front garden, but they are often not built on a street but rather along a walking path.

The Nageler Vaart is one of the drainage channels that runs through the Noordoostpolder. In Nagele this canal flows through the heart of the village with a well designed bend, thus connecting village and polder beyond and also providing the very necessary drainage.

Each housing cluster has a large public garden at its heart. This is not the case in the "gilded edges" of detached and semidetached housing with larger plots and thus more greenery provided by private gardens. The public gardens are communally maintained by the residents of each cluster.

Nagele: a new polder village on CIAM principles

The village of Nagele is located in the Noordoostpolder and is one of the 10 new villages built on new land between 1949 and 1956. It was actually one of the last villages to be completed and has a distinctly different feel to the other new villages in the polder. The first reason is obvious,: it is the only village built according to modernist principles, all the other villages were built in the traditionalist Delft School. The second reason is that Nagele is the only village not built specifically for agricultural personnel.

The new village of Nagele was to be built southwest of the central town directly west of the former island of Schokland. It was not named after a former village lost to the Zuiderzee, but for a small island called de Nagel (literally: the nail) that lay between Urk and Schokland. This Nagel was swallowed by the sea at the end of the Middle Ages. The new village was designed during the 1950s by a team of modernist architects including Gerrit Rietveld, Aldo van Eyck, Cornelis van Eesteren and the landscape architect Mien Ruys. All members of the design team were part of the functionalist movement  "De 8 and Opbouw" or affiliated to CIAM. Based on the first sketches by Rietveld, Van Eesteren designed the layout of the village along an orthogonal grid, with a large open space at the heart, residential clusters around this and a wide windbreak planted with trees around the whole.

The architects favoured terraces with flat roofs and without ornaments to emphasise the pure forms within the green envelop. A spatial separation of functions underlies the layout, with through traffic being lead not though but along the village. The central green hosts the communal facilities like churches and schools and is surrounded by  a circular street that gives access to the houses. The residential clusters are all arranged around a central green meant for communal use, with small gardens behind the dwellings. Much attention was paid to providing a green structure of trees to counteract the openness of the surrounding polderland.

A schematic representation of Nagele with a central green and an envelope of trees surrounding 7 clusters of houses. The through routes go past the village. The canal however goes right through the heart of Nagele linking it to the polder beyond and the nearby industrial estate.

Originally the designs consisted of three churches, two schools, a cluster of shops, a cemetery, sporting grounds and 300 dwellings. The designs were built in adjusted form with over 400 dwellings in 7 clusters around the central green with the churches and schools and the shops in a ribbon in the west. Unlike other villages in the Noordoostpolder, people not related to agriculture could rent a house in Nagele. Thus this modernist model village became populated with farmhands and commuters. The village was designed with the motorcar in mind, whilst other traditionalist villages were designed for cycling. At present 1939 people live here.

As an example of a modernist model village the whole of Nagele had heritage status. Sadly this only seems to apply to the housing and not to the planting and open spaces as most of the detailed planting by Ruys has disappeared.

The orthogonal layout of Nagele is very clear as is the clustering of the several types of houses around public gardens. Most of the housing is arranged in terraced rows with some detached and semidetached housing in the edges making this an example of what is colloquially knows as a village with a gilded edge. At the centre we find the public amenities: church (c), school (s), medical post (m) and a community hall (h). On both sides of this now derelict building we find the shops and even a small supermarket. On the other side of the main road we find the cemetery (+) and playing fields (p) for hockey, football and tennis.