Betondorp: modernism in an Unwiseque framework

The central Brink square is surrounded by housing constructed in concrete. Here a look back towards the central garden square. The greater building height (an extra storey) creates the impression of "towers" on the corners making for a gate-like effect.

The same device is employed on the corners on the edge of the garden village. Here two three storey houses frame the central view of one of the axial ensembles.

By playing with the building line a sense of spatial uniqueness is achieved. This is a clear example of an Unwinesque design device. Here used in one of the small closes in this garden village. By using a different colour on the upper storey the corners are emphasised.

In a more subtle way colour and plasticity is used on the corners of rows of terraced housing (shown left). The chimney is part of the overall composition of the block. The shape and colour are picked up by the corner style. A slight recess above and below creates a thin strip of shade that emphasises the structural element  as ornamental. The doors are used as ornament everywhere in Tuindorp Watergraafsmeer, but especially so in the Betondorp-section. Here some lovely original doors in a graphic cubist design that was popular at the time.

In some places, especially as part of axial ensembles, one of the blocks is set back to make space for a small lawn to create an Unwinesque green.

Unwinesque urban design also features gates and exaggerated corners. On the left an good example of a gate within a row of terraced housing with columns and a block capital. Not all housing is plain off-white or grey, some has subtle colour. Here the grey upper storey has elongated corners that replicate the columns but inverted.

Another example of Unwinesque design, here with typical treatment of the corners to create an interior street space. For this the corner buildings have a building line closer to the street, so the street space widens beyond. Also note the subtle detailing emphasising the corners.

The corners often have slight embellishments that are part of the outer skin of the building. On the left a dynamic abstract composition reminiscent of the neo-plasticist Theo van Doesburg. In a similar way banding is translated into a modernist idiom (seen on the right).

Plasticity and subtle decorative elements create a varied streetscape as intended in Unwinesque design. On the left the corner building is set back with a chimney marking the stepped building line. The banding goes around the corner. The block behind has a protruding central section. The building opposite has a slightly protruding upper storey.  

The use of colour is mostly muted in this garden village, unlike the projects by Bruno Taut. Here gray tones emphasise the horizontality of the block. Such ribbons of windows are a feature of many Dutch buildings of the 1920s. The black plinth and roof trim are inspired by Scandinavian examples and the work of Dudok. The brightly coloured doors provide a splash of colour. Only primary colours are used for the doors plus green. This colour scheme of white gray black and primary colours is in keeping with The Style, an art movement of the time.

Some of the architecture is more decorative with great plasticity of shape. This makes for sculptural blocks with banded "towers" on the corners, protruding chimneys emphasising the shift in building line. The protruding sections used to house a corner shop, hence the shop windows that go around the corner. A separate set of stairs lead up to the apartment above the shop. Now it is a single dwelling.

Where the buildings take on a Bauhaus-type modernist style (on the right) horizontality dominates the facade. Only the bright red doors punctuate the lines and provide a rhythm. The clusters of 4 doors -again- indicates a duplex with apartments. On the left the main entrance in the southwest near where the church now stands. Here two protruding portals nestle in the corner of the protruding section of the block that is further emphasised by the banding on the upper storey and the sculpture of an eagle.

The two schools are built in brick and sit between the rendered concrete buildings of Betondorp. The contrast is very marked, but the building designed in brick cubism has a similar plasticity. So the two styles are married well on the square.

Where the brick built section of Tuindorp Watergraafsmeer meets the concrete built Betondorp the contrast is remarkable. Although similar Unwinesque design devices are employed the architecture is so different that the feel of the place is very different. The brick-built section conforms to what is usually associated with garden village design in the Netherlands.

A gate at the beginning of a street gives access to the rest of the garden village beyond. This is the typical architecture of garden villages and garden suburbs of the 1920s and 1930s in the Netherlands.

Betondorp: a planned community, Brink Square

From the Middenweg (literally the road through the centre of the polder) the Tuindorp Watergraafsmeer presents itself with typical 1920s architecture in brick with pitched tiled roofs. The corners are emphasised in the design by raising the roofline, using a hipped roof and including a loggia underneath the box gutter.

The brick buildings designed by Versteeg comprise of both family housing and apartments, but always in a semirural architectural envelop. The blocks with terraced housing (left) are most often shorter than those with apartments. Sets of double front doors give access to duplexes of a garden apartment and a double storey apartment above.

From the Brinkstraat the central Brink square is accessed through two gates. In the area between the two gates some small-scale business premises are located just behind the shops on the garden square beyond. We have now entered "Betondorp" with its buildings constructed of concrete.

The corners of the streets that run off the "central" garden square are emphasised in the architecture by the use of a greater building height thus creating "towers", as seen on the left. The central axis of the Brinkstraat enters the garden square via a low gate between shops (right). The wings of the block follow the direction of the diagonal streets on each corner of the Brink.

Another winged block of shops with apartments above, positioned opposite the block with the gate. The upper storey has been set back to visually lower the building and decrease the perceived building mass.

The housing on one side of the Brink square is 3 storeys high and employs the same device to decrease the perceives scale of the block by incorporating a setback in the design. The block (shown on the left) has great sculptural quality and rhythm by the high partition walls crowned with an ornamental beam. The bright red doors are a nice touch! The same red colour appears in the door to the Volksgebouw (literally: people's building). Also note the ornamental use of black and white glazed tiles.

On the other side of the garden square a gallery linking two community buildings (the Volksgebouw and the Library) gives a glimpse of the garden court beyond. Thus the fourth edge of the garden square is set back and the garden motif is duplicated.

Through the gallery the terraced housing beyond is visible across the garden. The gallery itself has been carefully designed to emphasise the shape of the central square without being a hard edge to it. The sides that link it to the two communal building sit at an 45 degree angle, creating a winged outline reminiscent of the rows of shops.

The gallery separates the garden court of the housing (only here with a pitched roof!) from the garden square, but also links the two visually. Practically the gallery forms the boundary of the housing and provides a sense of security and privacy.

The corners are again emphasised by higher buildings. The Leeszaal (shown on the right) is the library was included in the garden village to elevate the working classes. It is a carefully designed massing of squared of volumes with a tower-like chimney. The building opposite the Volksgebouw also had a tower, this time with a clock. As no church was included in this socialist scheme a separate provision had to be made for showing the time.

From one of the diagonal streets the central square presents itself as a small park with large trees. The greenery contrasts nicely with the off-white cube-shaped buildings of Betondorp. The effectiveness of the greater building height on the corners is clearly visible.

Tuindorp Watergraafsmeer, an Unwinesque garden village deconstructed

The layout of the garden village Watergraafsmeer was designed by two architects and based on Unwinesque design principles rather than the garden village schematic by Feenstra. The available space has been parcelled with some public open spaces and without allotments. The whole garden village has been designed as a single spatial entity that is defined on one side by a main road, on one side by an undulating canal separating the housing from the cemetery and on two sides by a narrow green belt  in the shape of a park.

At the heart of the garden village a central square was designed with 4 streets running on the diagonal from each corner. A central axial street link the square both conceptually and practically to the Middenweg (the existing thoroughfare). The streets are foreshortened and not used as sight lines by a bend after a certain length (different for each one of the 4 streets radiating from the corners). The axial street has a symmetrical setup with a variable building line -conform Unwinesque design principles- and long rows of terraced housing creating a more suburban feel. This formal ensemble of the Brinkstraat isn't elevated to main entrance by means of architectural devices. The actual main entrance -in a spatial sense- can be found at the beginning of the green belt at the beginning of the Veeteeltstraat (indicated by *).

Most streets are straight with a variable building line. Some streets are long, most are short. The layout of the garden village is composed of several axial ensembles that angle towards or away from the longer streets. These axial ensembles often incorporate public greenery, but can also focus on "gates" or higher sections of buildings (shown in orange). Most axial ensembles are fully symmetrical. Some are almost symmetrical, but appear symmetrical nonetheless.

To break the perceived length of the streets the building line is set back creating a wider street space. This design device is emphasised by the use of protruding sections of the building or row of buildings. This creates staggered spaces along the streets creating visual interest. By employing protruding sections at the beginning and/or end of a street the unity and singularity of that street is emphasised.

Another Unwinesque device employed in this garden village is the treatment of the corners. This is done by placing buildings on the diagonal, or rounding of the corner of a row of terraced housing. A variation is to be seen in the winged blocks where a corner is emphasised by a central block or terrace (often this building also forms the centre point of the axial ensemble). These winged corners (shown in orange) can be concave with the wings extending beyond the building line or convex with the wings extending behind the building line. The wings typically follow the street or the public space. All these corner solutions have been employed in Tuindorp Watergraafsmeer. Winged blocks are especially prominent around the central Brink square. Some corners are further emphasised in the architecture by raising the roofline to create "corner towers". In the brick buildings with a pitched roof the direction of the ridge is changed thus introducing a gable end that sits next to a roof surface.

Closes were never an integral part of garden city design in the Netherlands. This is linked to the dislike of dead-end streets by politicians and the police. They make however a very efficient way of parcellation possible, so some small closes have been incorporated within the layout of Tuindorp Watergraafsmeer. There are in fact 3 such closes (shown in red) and one inverted close (indicated by i) on a corner. More common is the use of small greens (shown in orange). These are part of many of the axial ensembles within this layout, often as an end point of an axis.

The suburban development which is often typified as varied and pleasantly irregular, in fact employs many formal design devices to create this sense of irregularity. Though the same device is used in more than one location the way it is translated into architecture varies, so the whole garden village surprises at every corner as the outlook is invariably slightly different. The buildings of concrete construction can't be recognised on the plan. They were built in the south-western part of the garden village along Unwinesque design principles but with a different take on architectural form.

Within the section built in concrete (the so-called "Betondorp") two large building are constructed in brick. These are both (former) school buildings on the Huismanshof (1) and the Zuivelplein (2) respectively.