Tuindorp Vooruit: 1920s architecture

The entrance to the Poortlaan from the Parkweg has been treated like a gate by the architects and thus creates a separate world within. The striking central ensemble of the garden village Vooruit (Forwards) physically and visually starts here.

The entrance of the Poortlaan (literally Gate Avenue) consists of L-shaped houses on both ends of the long row of terraces behind. Also parts of the upper floor protrudes over  the pavement with an arched stone porch, thus strengthening the gate-typology. From the porch a long vista along the terraced houses appears (shown on the right).

This so-called "Hofje" is unique in Ede. The typology of this type of low buildings beyond a gate around a communal yard was quite common in medieval times as a form of housing for the needy or destitute. These almshouses were only to be found in cities. With the gate and the long facades, this is yet another very urban reference utilized in this garden village.

From the Gate that separates the central yard of the Hofje from the Poortlaan one gets a good feel of the intensions of the designers. This small ensemble used to lie isolated at the halfway point of the central ensemble. Now new buildings have been constructed on either side. This reinforces the insular character of this Hofje, but why on earth would the architect choose this colour blend of brick so different to the original ensemble?

The long terraces are comprised of low brick houses under one continues roof. All restored houses have the same green striped awnings. The entrances to the garden paths are marked by little porches.

A porch wasn't a feature of existing local architecture. They are an invention of the architects and serve as a rhythmic embellishment meant to partition the long facades of the terraced housing. Their design has been inspired by Waterland architecture commonly found in the polders north of Amsterdam.This detached house (shown right) was the residence of the Enka-factory overseer. It sits at the halfway point and is meant to convey the message that even in their private residences (that were provided by the factory) behavior would be monitored.

Just before the Poortplein the Poortlaan is bayoneted (thus conforming to Camillo Sitte who preferred short lines of sight). The bayonet is used to particularize the architecture. This is true of the short terraces and of the higher corner building that refers in its treatment to historic buildings with additions from different periods thus creating a romantic silhouette.

The corner building in the bayoneted street is adorned with an ornate version of a bell gable, a reference to the historic urban architecture of the Low Countries. All gable ends are treated differently for romantic effect. The short terrace of four dwellings has elevated corners with a portico in wood. The architectural reference seems to be medieval in this case. As an ensemble within a streetscape is works very well! 

The ensemble ends with the semicircular Poortplein (literally: Gate Square). It is only fitting that the central street should be closed off by a similar gate-like feature as used at the entrance. The same covered walkways are clearly visible along the road.

The building line traces the semicircular shape of the public garden at the Poortplein. Here the same awnings are visible.  The semidetached houses on the Blokkenweg parallel to the railway tracks differ in architecture. These houses (shown on the right) were meant for the more skilled labourers.

From the Kerkweg the buildings along the Poortplein show great variety, especially in roofline, position of the chimneys and type of wall opening used. The whole makes for a varied and romantic building ensemble.

From the semicircular Poortplein long rows of terraced houses stretch along the Kerkweg in a wing like fashion akin to formal baroque architecture. The ensemble around the Poortplein is thus extended to form a formal front along the Kerkweg (and as such towards the intended phase two on the other side of the road).

The school was built in the 1930s across from the Poortplein as the centre of the garden village Vooruit. It sat on a rectangular plot exactly twice the length of the Poortplein. Now it has been shortened by a street for the new buildings of the redeveloped phase two.

Factory housing: Tuindorp Vooruit, phase 2

The long terraces of phase one were also planned for phase 2 of Tuindorp Vooruit in Ede. The architects Van der Burgh and Eschauzier held the conviction that closed facades were the proper expression of garden city ideals. These proposals fit well with the ideas of the forward thinking industrialists of the ENKA factory. They named the building society charged with the development of the factory housing 'Forwards' as an expression of this. The local council couldn't appreciate what was built in the first phase of the garden village and rejected similar proposals for the second phase. Despite the large gardens the residents also felt too hemmed in and couldn't appreciate the closeness of their neighbours. This resulted in drastic alterations to the plans.

The second phase of 150 dwellings was executed in the style of an open settlement, more akin to the majority of garden villages built in the Netherlands. The strong architectural expression so evident in the first phase was abandoned with the long rows of terraced houses. In its stead the plan comprised solely of semidetached houses that were scattered along streets and a large public garden. The plan has none of the typical Unwinesk treatment of the houses and building line. Basically the second phase consisted of two parallel streets with houses on either side and four blocks placed at a 45 degree angle in the middle and orthogonally placed dwellings around an amorphous public garden.

All the building were built in one building campaign in 1924 and '25. In 1934 a school was added across from the Poortplein. In the original designs this was always meant as the location for a special building. Until that time the school had been located on a side street of the Parkweg. The school was first built as a single block and later extended and expanded again with a back wing on each occasion.  

 In 1950 the Tuindorp Vooruit West comprised of the second phase of the garden village with the large school and the terraces built in 1949 (shown hatched). The very shapely layout isn't supported by the placement of the buildings. The old garden village consisted of two distinctive parts; a central portion and the southwestern part around a public garden. Later another block was added plus a row of terraces along the southern edge between the communal playground and the Parkweg.

Of the second phase of Tuindorp Vooruit only the school remains. All the other houses have been demolished and replaced with much larger dwellings (a mix of terraced housing and apartments) in short and long rows. The closed facades are punctuated by several gates and arched passages. The style of the new buildings is retrospective and picks up the characteristic architecture of 1920s garden villages. This style of architecture is has been used by developers in the Netherlands from about 1990 as buyers preferred the old houses built in the 1920s and 1930s to postmodern new-builds. The new buildings are well executed, but very urban in comparison to the scattered suburban housing that stood here before. In this location (as in too many other places) the architects couldn't resist using a totally different yellow stone for some parts of the new houses. Not that the buildings are badly done, and they get away with it as the retrospective  expressionist yellow brick buildings replace the 1958 residential neighbourhood that was added to the garden village on the northwest side.  

In the present situation only the terraces on the Parkweg and the old school still stand. The rest has been demolished and replaced by a more urban interpretation of the garden city model with two apartment complexes (A) and both semidetached and short terraces. Around the school the formal wing like closed faced emulate the first phase, thus returning to the interpretation of the original architects.

Factory housing: Tuindorp Vooruit, phase 1

On a plot of arable land (called the Maander Eng) between two preexisting roads and the railway the first phase of Tuindop Vooruit was built. This garden village development numbering 150 homes was also known as Enkadorp, after its initiator the ENKA company. These houses were built in a single building campaign between 1920 and 1923.

The design makes good use of the trapeziform plot. A few things are striking in the setup of this garden village. Firstly the long rows of terraced housing. This is not very common in Dutch garden city movement inspired garden villages where short rows of 3 or 4 are the norm. Quite in keeping with many other factory villages from the period are the deep garden plots (ranging from 20 to 30 metres).  Another characteristic quality of Tuindorp Vooruit is the mathematical arrangement of blocks on the streets and public spaces.

The original design consisted of 150 houses in a few types. The buildings are often arranged in long rows with sculptural treatment of the corners. At the heart of the garden village we find the Poortlaan (literally: Gate Avenue) an the Poortplein (literally: Gate Square). The Poortlaan (PL) Connects the Parkweg (P) to the Kerkweg (K) via the Poortplein (PP). The other streets Blokkenweg (B), Zijdelaan (Z)  and Twijnstraat (T) are all named after artificial silk production.

At the heart of the garden village lies a close fashioned on a typical almshouse as a neat rectangle. At the entrance to the central road the corners have been extended  over an arched walkway thus creating a gate typology. The streetscape culminates in a formal semicircular public garden. This layout is enforced by the gate-like treatment of the higher corner buildings and the building line that swerves out to spread out like wings along the Kerkstraat (Church Street). In the central street (the Poortlaan) a bayonet is used to facilitate the change of direction. The house for the supervisor acts as a pivot point for the first part of the ensemble and the other short internal streets. Most of the buildings are built along the preexisting roads, with the ends of a row always set back, except for the row on the Parkweg (literally: Park Way) that no longer exists.

The whole layout separates into two parts with the detached house on the corner of the Poortlaan Zijdelaan as the pivot point to the other houses. These are semidetached houses on the Blokkenweg parallel to the railway tracks and three blocks (two o either side of the Zijdelaan and one on the Poortlaan. Along the Twijnstraat two identical rows of linked semidetached houses were built. This model later became a staple in Dutch suburban house building.

In the current situation only the part of phase 1 of Tuindorp Vooruit that has monumental status still exists. These buildings on the Poortlaan and Poortplein / Kerkweg have been restored. Also the semidetached houses along the railway still stand. On the Parkweg the new Parkhof (literally: Park Court) replaces a long row of terraced houses that for some reason were not included in the conservation area. The once large gardens have been shortened to make room for the Parkhof complex. Also on either side of the Hofje a row of new terraced houses has been erected. Furthermore the semidetached houses have been replaced with short rows.

Factory housing: Tuindorp Vooruit, Ede

In 1913 the ENKA factory producing artificial silk started production in the city of Arnhem. The name of this artificial fiber producer is an abbreviation of Eerste Nederlandse Kunstzijdefabriek Arnhem (literally: First Dutch artificial silk manufacture Arnhem). Because of a lack of room for expansion on the Arnhem-site the company bought a secondary site in Ede in 1919. A large plot of heathland was acquired along the railway connecting Utrecht and Arnhem. The small village of Ede had been designated as a location for housing several garrisons of the Dutch land forces in 1900. This lead to a subsequent expansion of the small farming village located on the edge of the Veluwe hills and an impoldered floodplain (the Binnenveld).

Ede was considered a favourable location for the second ENKA factory as the land was cheap, there was plenty of clean water rising at the foot of the hills and the railway connected the site to the mayor urban centres in both the Netherlands and Prussia.  There were few skilled laborers available in the area. So from the onset the plan was to build a factory with housing and amenities for factory personnel. The local council agreed to the sale of the land. The construction of 300 houses for factory workers to be built as a garden village was included in the deed.  This Dutch variant of the garden city model was advocated by council members who were greatly influenced by 't Lansink in Hengelo.

The ENKA company founded the Woningbouwvereniging Vooruit (literally: building society Forwards) in 1919. This building society stood under company control, with the local council as a board member on paper. Through this construction the company could build the housing it needed within the Woningwet*. The name that was chosen for this building society speaks volumes of the intensions behind it.

The complete factory village was constructed in several phases and comprises the ENKA factory in the east (shown in violet), a row of villas for higher management (shown in dark green), a public park, a playground, a school, sporting grounds, a small villa park with some detached and semidetached houses for middle management (amber) and two workers colonies with a few houses for the overseers (shown in red). An older road (a so-called Grindweg) separates the factory site from the various housing areas. East of the factory the HORA-park (HORA is an acronym of: Herstelingsoord voor Rustbehoevende Ambtenaren, literally Convalescence Home for Civil Servants in need of Repose) was built in 1922.

In November 1920 the first building phase of 150 dwellings was approved by the local council. By December 1922 all houses were occupied. The project, designed by the architects Van der Burgh and Eschauzier was never intended to be a complete model community. The garden village focused solely on housing, no amenities or shops were included. The garden village is however part of a socially stratified neighbourhood that also included a small villa park and the Reehorst (a theatre and cinema venue that sat in a large strolling park and is comparable to the Casino often seen in Germany). With the completion of the second building phase in 1925 some shops were added together with another 150 dwelling. In 1934 a large school was built between the two phases. Architecturally the components differed greatly. Only the school and the larger part of phase 1 still remain. The buildings have been given heritage status. Phase 2 has been demolished and replaced with new buildings in a similar style.

*The Woningwet (Housing Act) of 1901 sought to improve the living conditions of all Dutch people and focused on both rental and owner-occupied housing. The Housing Act prescribed minimal standards for new housing and made state advances and contributions available to building societies. This lead to many companies founding building societies that were only independent in name.