Agnetapark, Delft: the first garden village in Holland

Delft is a typical water city. Directly west of the old city of Delft in Holland lay the polder known as Voordijkshoornsche Polder. in 1847 the railway connecting Amsterdam via Harlem and Leyden with The Hague was continued to Rotterdam via Delft. This city grew on either side of a canal (drainage channel) that was dug between a natural creek -the Schie- and the Roman shipping channel known as Vliet that connected the Rhine with the Gantel Creek near the mouth of the Meuse. Such a drainage channel was known as a "delft" end was later renamed Delftse Vliet. The railway cut off a section of the polder on the side of the Delftse Vliet which was quickly developed for industrial use. In 1869 the engineer Jacob Cornelis van Marken, together with his wife Agneta Matthes, founds the Nederlandsche Gist- en Spiritusfabriek (Netherlands Yeast and Methylated Spirit Factory) between railway and shipping canal. 

The socially conscious entrepreneurial couple not only advocated reform, but took an active role in realising change. With this aim they purchased part of the Altena Farm on the other side of the railway to build better housing for their workers in 1881. The 9.9 acre plot was designed as a model village with a large villa for the company director Van Marken and his spouse and workers housing grouped together on one side of the site. The layout was designed by garden architect L.P. Zocher, who created a typical scaled down version of an informal landscape park with a central pond. The whole site was surrounded by a deep ditch to improve drainage. The soil that was excavated from the ponds and ditches was used to raise the sites of the housing. This is again an example of urban design based on garden design models.

In 1884 the NV Gemeenschappelijke Gronden  (Communal land Limited) was founded by Van Marken with the aim of building and renting healthy houses, boarding houses, workshops, shops, baths and laundries in the grounds of the Agnetapark.  The housing was designed by architects E.H Gugel -the German head of architecture at the Delft Polytechnic- and F.M.L. Kerkhoff. Construction started that in 1884 and the first dwellings were ready in 1885.

 

The model factory village of Agnetapark in its context. The development comprises of two spatially distinct sections with the oldest part directly adjacent to the railway tracks.The factory site is located east of the tracks near the Delftse Vliet, a shipping canal.

The enlightened industrialist Van Marken was closely involved in both the business and the housing project. He translated his motto "De fabriek voor allen, allen voor de fabriek" into practical measures such as a work council (1878), profit sharing by workers and a collective pension fund for all employees. The housing was also approached from the needs of workers and included several classes of housing and amenities located in three community buildings. De Gemeenschap (the community) housed a kindergarten, elementary school, a gym and a canteen. De Tent (the tent) housed two cooperative shops (green grocer and bakery) and a music hall. The third building is the villa that was extended and converted into a domestic science school for girls and a technical school for boys. The company also provided the residents of Agnetapark and other workers with a playground, bowling alley, shooting range, boathouse with rowing boats, bicycle club, a choir and brass band. The third international cooperative congress was held in Agnetapark. As a complete social scheme this project inspired later factory housing ('t Lansink, Philipsdorp, Heveadorp).

This factory village, where every house had its own garden, comprised of 78 dwellings. These were in part inspired by Mulhouse style housing known from workers colonies (in Essen, Gelsenkirchen, Genk, Maasmechelen, Dorplein, Heerlen, Hoensbroek and Landgraaf) and by workers cottages (again in Essen and in Britain). The whole was conceived as an ornamental village (a hameau, or ferme orné) with lower and higher buildings grouped together along curving streets on the edge of a pleasant park. There were 7 Mulhouse Quadrangles incorporated in the scheme with one taller block as a double Mulhouse Quadrangle with 4 apartments  on each of the two storeys. These houses have been changed by halving the number of dwellings per building. The other housing is typically in short terraces with protruding sections at the corners or at the centre.

The so-called "Second Park" was developed directly west of the first Agnetapark. Between 1925-28 a regular neighbourhood of workers housing was built around a central garden with pond. Low housing wraps around this square central space in regular fashion. On the side backing onto the "first park" the housing is higher and comprises of boven-onderwoningen (up - down dwellings). This section of Agnetapark took inspiration from garden villages but has few Unwinesque design features, except for the variable building line and the angled corners.

 

Most of Agnetaparks survives to this day. The park has been changed, the surrounding ditch has been filled in and not all buildings have survived. The old villa 'Rust Roest' which became a school (1) was demolished in 1981; as was the boat house (6). The communal shops (2) have been changed and the building has been extended. One block of semidetached cottages was demolished to make way for the print shop (3) in 1890. The other two community buildings 'De Gemeenschap' (4) and 'De Tent' (5) have been altered internally but still show their original frontage. On the edge of the park a café (7) was built. This has been extended, but remains in place. A few cottages along the southern edge were never built (shown in orange), instead the large extension of 'new park' (8) was built on the west side. The southern section is included in the conservation area of Agneta park and comprises of a few streets with private housing (9). The land was set aside for development by Agnetapark to allow middle class employees to build their own house. Agnetapark comprised solely of rented housing.   

Agnetapark is often called a garden village, but predates the book by Ebenezer Howard, that is the official start of the Garden City Movement and its spread. It is in fact a model village much like ones known from Britain or model factory housing as known from Germany.  Only the extension around the garden square can be seen as (kind of) a garden village. As the earliest Dutch example of paternalistic factory housing the whole estate was listed a monument and given protected status. It is actually one of the top 100 monuments defined by the Dutch Heritage Council. The houses have been lovingly restored and the combined estate is well worth a visit!

Daffodils on display

The plant that embodies the month of March and thus the beginning of spring is the daffodil, or narcissus. Most are bright yellow in colour, which is also the colour of Easter due to all the yellow wild flowers of this season that seem to brighten the mood in springtime.

The daffodil most often seen in the Netherlands is this deep yellow one called 'Dutch Master'. It is a sturdy variety that spreads easily and is disease free. It's the typical trumpet daffoldil.

These large flowered hybrid daffodils (Narcissus 'Ice Follies') start of a light yellow hue and turn lighter as they develop. The cup stays a lovely sulphur that is offset by the white sepals behind. Where these bulbs are planted en masse the effect is simply breathtaking. Here some impressions from a thoroughfare in Eindhoven near the castle "De Burgh", not far from the eponymous garden village; the white houses can be seen in the background.

Small-flowered daffodils can be equally effective when planted in large numbers. The parkway separating the train station and the university campus has verges and central reservation planted with many bulbs including low daffodils in the Cyclamineus Section. As these flower more or less at the same time they are now providing blocks of colour in the urban landscape.

Unwinesque artistic urban design, some examples

Examples of so-called Unwinesque garden cities (Gartenstadt), garden suburbs (Gartenstadt, Cité Jardin), garden villages (Gartensiedlung, Tuindorp) and garden estates (Gartensiedlung, Tuinwijk) will also include developments designed on Sitte-esque artistic principles. As I've explained Unwinesque design and planning is the Anglo-Saxon elaboration on Sitte-esque principles.

With the beginnings of most cottage estates built as a model village in garden design, the layout of the roads emulates those used in parks and gardens. Sitte-esque artistic design favoured the curded and irregular lines, even though Sitte himself is not dismissive of axial and formal compositions in his book. At the heart of both Letchworth Garden City, Hampstead Garden Suburb and Welwyn Garden City Unwin included a formal axial composition. Other example include Tuindorp Watergraafsmeer (Betondorp), Genk-Zwartberg (Cité Sud) and Genk-Winterslag (Cité 1).

The LCC garden suburb known as Tower Gardens Estate also has a strong axial component at the centre of the layout. To the south the first building phase with parallel streets is typical of a model dwellings estate. A north south axis reminiscent of a "vue de vert" (used in baroque gardens) runs up through this development linking the several building phases.

A central axial composition is rare and in most cases any formal ensembles included in the design structure streets and small squares or greens within an overall layout.  These formal sparial ensembles are either orthogonal, or -more often- directional with a clear focal point or strong symmetry.

Within the garden village of Buiksloterham-Noord several formal ensembles are used to delineate separate neighbourhoods, all developed by a different Housing Association. The formal ensembles all focus on a public space. There is often great symmetry in the layout of streets and the arrangement of the buildings.

Unwin favours short streets much as Sitte does. A site, especially when it is on sloping terrain, might call for long streets. Another reason for using few short streets can be the shape of the site available for development. Unwinesque design uses several devices to break the perceived length of streets. The most important are to design curved streets and to play with the building line thus creating a flow of places along a route emulating Sitte's progression of spaces.

The streets in Tuindorp De Riet are mostly of great length due to the elongated site. This is counteracted by creating strong beginnings of streets and by spatially and visually subdividing the street into sections. For this special architectural shapes are introduced, greens are inserted and there is a play with the relative building line, thus squeezing and widening the streets space.

A staple of Unwinesque and of Sitte-esque urban design is to create a clear beginning and end of a street. This is used in many garden villages and garden suburbs as part of the total layout. Especially in smaller examples that are only one or a few streets this device is employed to structure the development and make it recognisable as a separate development.

The first phase of Tuindorp Vooruit in Ede is a curved street with a gate (G) at one end and gate-like narrowing of the streets (N) and a semicircular green at the other. Halfway a small enclosed unit or "hofje" (H) is included inspired by a Court Beguinage.

A method for creating variable space along a street is to emphasise the junctions by opening them up. This can be enhanced by the use of angled corners where a corner is cut off at an 45 degree angle. This also aids road safety as it produces better visibility at junctions. These angled blocks can become a feature on their own and are sometimes used in a formal way to create visual interest within a garden village layout.

The suburb of Genk-Waterschei connects a regular workers colony on an orthogonal layout to a garden village  known as Cité Jardin André Dumont. Within this exemplary Unwinesque garden village angled blocks are used on most street junctions. There is a distinction between regular blocks placed at an angle (in orange) and winged corners blocks (in red). Especially these winged corner blocks are very typical of Unwinesque developments.

To achieve the desired informal effect Unwin advocates the use of closes and greens to group the buildings around. As part of Unwinesque design houses are grouped around greens or where buildings are set back to create a place (for instance at a junction) or to create space (to break the length of the street) the space is often designed as a green laid to lawn. If these clusters of houses around a green are set back from the street at the end of a cul-de-sac they form closes. Such a close is often used in Unwinesque design, but not so often in the Netherlands where police didn't approve of dead-end streets. 

The garden village of Am Freihof has many Unwinesque design features. It is an excellent example of the use of closes and greens to better parcel the site and use all available land for development. The closes are shown in red, the greens are shown in green.

A design feature of most German garden villages is the Sitte-eque use of height differences and gates or gateways under buildings to create visual interest and define spaces. This design device is especially effective in creating a sequence of well defined public places with closed or long facades. This makes them rather different from Unwinesque examples that rely mostly on (semi)detached cottages and short terraces of 3, 4 or 5. There are quite some hybrids of the two approaches (e.g. Hermeswiese, Lockerwiesesiedlung, Ratingsee-Siedlung).

Am Schmalen Rain has little in common with core Unwinesque garden villages. Yet this strong spatial ensemble fits neatly within the more urban German tradition which focuses on a sequence of spaces, often separated physically by buildings and a clear overall shape. This garden village comprises of several spaces from street via square to large green, all within an ever present built-up envelop. The central square can only be reached by passing underneath higher buildings with an arched gateway at every corner.  

There are quite a few non-Unwinesque and non-Sitte-esque garden villages. Some are factory villages (Batadorp, Philipsdorp, Heveadorp). Other belong to a different style than retrospective vernacular. These are mostly designed in a modernist idiom (New Objectivity, Bauhaus, Brick Cubism), like for instance Batadorp, Tuindorp De Burgh, Onkel Toms Hütte. La Cité Moderne, Siedlung Dammerstock, Siedlung Törten, Siedlung Pottgieserhof and Siedlung Dickelsbach. A special category are the Gartenhöfe, these urban blocks of apartments with communal facilities and amenities  wrapped around a large garden or small park (e.g. Luisenhof, Carl Seitz Hof, Appel Hof, Karl Marx Hof, Ussulston Estate, Elm Park Court and Spaarndammerbuurt).

Unwinesque spatial design: town planning by artistic principles

When commenting on several suburban housing estates, I've mentioned their Unwinesque spatial features. This term is a reference to Raymond Unwin and the design principles he set out in his 1900 book Town Planning in Practice. The spatial arrangements of houses he features in this book quickly became the staple of Garden City Movement designs. This was in part due to his excellent drawings, but also due to the exemplary project of Hampstead Garden Suburb. The master plan for this housing trust estate was drawn by Raymond Unwin with his business partner Barry Parker. This was truly a case of leading by example!

In Germany Unwinesque spatial design as a separate term is little used, as most refer to this typical placement of houses along roads and communal spaces as Gartenstadt-Bebauung or in a few cases as Cottage-Siedlung when there is a clear English inspiration. In Germany this Garden City Urbanisation is -rightly so- seen as an example of Sitte-esque design principles. In his book Unwin relies heavily on German examples. Much of his references are from Germany and plans and solutions are taken from the German publication Der Städtebau. Because much of the narrative on the Garden City Movement is Anglo-Saxon many authors have limited themselves (consciously) to British and American sources. The best way to define Unwinesque spatial design is as: Sitte-eque spatial planning by artistic principles with special attention paid to the placement of building on or along public space (with the aim to define this public space).

In his book Unwin states that town planning is akin to garden design by the successful implementation of purposeful [spatial and functional] interventions. Both functionally and spatially Raymond Unwin copied standard practice in Germany. The way he emphasises the city survey and the existence of a regulated planning regime should also be seen in this light. Although Unwin and Sitte both favour vernacular architecture, Unwin stresses that artistic expression may take varying form. 

Spread over several chapters of his 1909 book on town planning, the Unwineque design principles are explained. The Chapter on Plots and placing buildings, together with the chapters on Site planning and residential roads and on Buildings forms the basis of Unwinesque design. Unwin elaborates on the number of dwellings per acre (12 is deemed perfectly suitable) and the most economical way of providing access to housing by way of streets. Also, the use of greens and closes to cluster houses around is advocated. Unwin consciously speaks of cottages and not of houses. He even goes so far as to typify row housing as "linked cottages". The ideal of a (semi)rural single dwelling is after all deeply rooted in England -as Muthesius also noted. The plans mainly show detached and semidetached houses. To create a sense of place it is stressed that the housing shouldn't merely be built along curved streets, but rather be spread irregularly with groupings of buildings giving some sense of enclosure along streets and other public space.

At the core of Sitte-esque urban design is the creation of a series of spatial units or places. Unwin elaborates on this. Instead of merely bending the street this curve can become the focus of a place. This can be done by creating a wide oblong space (A) with the space defined by linked terraced housing of 5 dwellings (1) or 4 dwellings (2) with a winged extension on either side. These winged extensions can be simple (3) or angled (4). The delineation of the place can be more informally achieved by careful arrangement of terraced housing, blocks pushed forward (5) to form a kind of gate and angled blocks (6).

Garden City Design is characterised by a strong unity of design. This is also strongly recommended by Unwin in his chapter on Buildings. As an Arts and Crafts adept he favours taking inspiration from the past in designing up-to-date buildings. He laments the loss of local -built- identity and pleads for unity resulting in a harmony of materials and colours binding buildings together. Harmony doesn't require monotony, but a proper relation between materials, colours and parts of the building. Unwin strongly advocates the use of colour by the architect as the external appearance is more important to the public than to the occupant or owner. To generate this desired harmonious unity in appearance some form of supervision on the design is deemed justified [and is indeed still very necessary]. The character of the estate should be determined in the site plan. That plan should be a spatial design that not merely focuses on the layout of streets and other public spaces, the building line and the plots, but should also suggest materials, colours, building height, type of roofs, height of eaves and colour schemes.

The prime consideration in planning on artistic principles is the overall effect. This means variation in buildings (shape, height, materials , etcetera), variation in corner treatment (open versus built-up corners), variation in the streets (form , length and width), variation in building line and variation in planting (green verges, trees, orchards, hedges, greens and stretches of lawn). An artistic overall effect is also achieved by employing row houses with variable building line and roofs, by combining large and small blocks, by adding pronounced wing features to the ends of side blocks and by using architectural features (arched gateways, protruding sections and bays, roof shape, turrets and materials).

Road junctions are carefully designed. The standard solution (A) has open corners with little definition. The gardens of one street meet de side of the housing in the adjoining street. The Unwinesque solution -on Sitte-esque principles- is to only use T-junctions. Junctions with open corners can be designed on artistic principles by pushing the block opposite the street back from the building line (B and C), or by adding protruding sections at either end to this block (D) making it a feature. The corner is left more open to create a small place that was mostly designed as a small expanse of grass with trees or a public garden.

The street layout of urban areas designed along Sitte-esque artistic principles mirror the sweeping curves of late 19th century gardens and parks. Unwin rejects this fixation on curved lines and instead sees merit in both formal and irregular lines. This is incidentally in line with garden design of his day that inserted formal gardens and elements (pergolas, avenues and ponds) within a curvilinear or naturalist overall scheme.

At the heart of most garden suburb and garden village designs -and yes even of the two actual garden cities- is a functional centre. This is mostly located near or directly connected to a train station or other mode of transport, such as a tram halt. Often this central area is emphasises spatially by an axial composition often underlined by a differentiation in building height, building style or materials used. There are several examples of garden suburbs and garden villages with a clear central area.

Two examples of built-up corners with a clear place as a beginning of a side street (A) versus a staggering of the building line indicating the side street (B). A built-up corner can be continuous, as we've seen in Austrian en German examples, but Unwin favours the scattered, more vernacular, approach. Corners are most often designed as a 45 degree section between the two rows of houses. Such a built-up corner can take a typical "butterfly" shape (1) or be given a concave front (2). The terrace opposite the can be treated as a focal point with a central feature (3) or simply as two combined semidetached houses with a central arched gateway to the back gardens (4).

The emphasis on T-junctions is classically Sitte-esque. In Unwinesque design this is the preferred way of joining streets. This means an emphasis on the corner. This can be done by recessing the corner to create more space, by cutting off the corner at an angle or by opening up the corner (also often with a single block set back). A T-junction leading to a cul-de-sac is used to make use of deep plots between streets to maximise land development for housing. These closes are an integral part of nay garden city type development.

Succession of space can take many forms. A classic and angular translation of Sitte-esque design is the sequence of places along a bend in the street shown by A. Two rectangular places delineated by the terraced housing create a sense of space along the bend. The same treatment can be used on a T-junction (B) with a classic set-back (1) in three linked terraces facing the adjoining street. Protruding sections are used to define the place by defining the space. The corner can be an angled block of housing (2) or a sharp corner with a corner shop (3). A close (C) -a type of cul-de-sac- is basically a place at the end of a street. To emphasise the close a gate feature (4) can be added.

In line with German examples Unwin relies on differentiating public space -along streets and places (squares). In his book he includes several examples of a succession of places that are basic Sitte-esque. This differentiation creates places at T-junctions, in the middle of the street but also along a street. Often there is a sequence of widening and contracting space as one moves along the streets. Only in rare cases are the places so spacious that they become proper (market)squares  or small parks. In most cases the widened space is taken up by greenery, mostly grass.

Unwin pays much attention to the streetscape in contrast to Sitte who mainly focuses on squares and other public places. Much attention is paid to a varied street layout with shorter and longer streets. To break the perceived length of long streets variation in building line and buildings are employed. Some of the houses are given protruding sections at the corners or are pushed forward to create a narrowing of the space between the buildings along the street. Another way of creating visual interest and variation is to push blocks behind the building line or create small greens surrounded by buildings on three sides just off the street.

It is also important to give the streets a clear beginning and end. This can be done at the junction with another street by creating a place; especially closed places work well for this. Another possibility is to create a gate-like feature by adding protruding sections to the terraced housing, narrowing the width and thus emphasising an entrance. Also the housing can be set back with an actual gate as an entrance feature. A third option is to use winged or angled blocks. Especially if these winged or angled blocks create a place this method is very effective.

Two examples of street designed with a clear beginning and with variation along the length in mind. Simply joining two streets at a slight angle (A) can limit the perceived length. If a gate feature (1) is added the street as a unit is emphasised. Here the blocks on either side of  the gate have been set back and angled to further enhance the sense of a clear beginning. Likewise a gate feature can be designed using two blocks brought forward (7). A clear beginning of a street can be suggested by a block set back from the building line opposite a side street (3) of by creating a place by using angled winged blocks around a junction (4). In the same way gate features work to segment a street, the street width can be widened by setting back blocks or terraces behind the building line. By doing this on both sides of the street (2) the perceived length of the street is shortened as there is now a wider section inserted. Other options are to wrap a terrace around a green off the street (5) or to set back a single block (6).