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.