Limburg mining colonies after German examples, Part 1

Examples from Wallonia and especially Germany greatly influenced the types of houses being built in the mining colonies of South Limburg. The architecture was very distinctly different in comparison to the local vernacular of limestone and red brick. The first colonies were built by private mining companies, especially for the Oranje-Nassau Mijnen (ONM). These examples all show similar if not identical types and architecture. The mining colonies provided by Dutch State Mines (DSM) differ not in type but in architectural expression.

The Mulhouse Quadrangle is the staple of the earliest colonies in both the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. After the model was first presented at the 1850 World Fair in Paris, it was quickly adopted in northwest Europe. This type in Grasbroek has a rectangular footprint with an annex housing two kitchens at either end. The design is very decorative with brick facades and painted concrete - meant to resemble natural stone. The high roof creates space for bedrooms that each have a flat dormer window for air and light.

The Colony Grasbroek in Heerlen comprises of 6 Mulhouse Quadrangles that are set in large gardens surrounded by a hedge. Access is provided by narrow paths. The buildings, each with four family dwellings, are placed at ample distances to allow for large gardens where the miners could grow their own vegetables, fruit and keep some animals.

The Mulhouse Quadrangles built in the Colony Husken in 1906 were built to the same floor plan and design. The architectural expression is slightly different with predominantly white facades composed of areas of render bound by strips and bands of decorative brickwork.

The cottages were designed in the same style. They are built as low, semidetached, single storey blocks under a mansard roof. These cottages were intended for middle management. Engineers were housed in higher, two storey, semidetached houses (seen in the middle of the picture). Rendered areas bound by brickwork detailing creates a coherent appearance that sets the colony apart from all other housing.

Husken Colony is now regarded as part of the Musschemig Colony that was built on adjoining land. This colony was built with a single type of double cottage on the principles of Sitte-esque artistic urban design. It is sometimes called an early garden village, but has none of the Unwinesque spatial features.

All the houses in the Colony Musschemig have a more decorative facade with a recessed central panel and two small flat dormers to bring light into the bedrooms underneath the pitched roof. The black base is used to great effect, but also had a practical reason in this living environment rich black coal dust.

Beersdal Colony is the single biggest mining colony developed by the Orange Nassau Mining Company (ONMC). It was built on a grid layout with long streets at right angles and only two types of housing alongside them. Here a row of semidetached cottages for middle management. These houses built here 1910-13 are identical to those built in the colony Husken.

The semidetached cottages were built to a simple design as a single-storey dwelling under a mansard roof. Incidentally this type is known in America as a Dutch gambrel roof.  The bedroom space in the attic only has one small dormer window at the front, there are two at the back. The architecture is very decorative and is known in the Netherlands at the Lorraine Style (Lotharingse Stijl). From a low brick plinth the facade rises as areas of white render between brick lesenes culminating in a brick strip frieze.

At the centre of the colony a single strip was not developed for housing but planted as a public park for the recreational use of the residents of this colony. Recreation for workers was seen as important by German health officials and thus implemented in these Dutch colonies. Mining colonies were often the first places where a football club was founded. It is a very basic green space lined by lime trees and laid to grass with some benches and play areas.

The colony is dominated by these rows of Mulhouse Quadrangles. These have been restored in their original ochre colour. The buildings built first in the south of Beersdal where white and brick, these yellow and brick types can be found north of the public park. The houses are identical to those built in Grasbroek by the same company some 10 years earlier.  

The semidetached cottages in the northern section of Beersdal also have the yellow and brick exterior. The sloping terrain created some difficulties in modelling the earth as retaining walls were deemed to expensive and were avoided. So in placed wide strips planted verges negotiate the height differences and allow level access to the housing.

The Colony Butting was built for the State Mine Emma 1908-10 by the Building Department of State Mines in Hoensbroek. These Mulhouse Quadrangles were the first housing for miners in Hoensbroek. They are distinctly different from the Mulhouse Quadrangles built by ONMC. These blocks of four dwellings under a single pitched roof have rendered facades with little detailing apart from set back window arches and wood-clad gable ends.  

These Mulhouse Quadrangles have a different floor plan than the ONMC-type with an extension under an extended roof. This means they have more internal space and allow for use of the garden more in line with the use to be expected in a terraced house. The roof height is similar to the ONMC-type, but these block appear more substantial and higher. These Mulhouse Quadrangles are very similar to those built at Terwinselen.

The colony at Terwinselen near State Mine Wilhelmina was built in several phases. The result is a mix of house types in a style typical for the period. On the left  examples of semidetached middle management housing in "Lorraine Style". These blocks are repeated along a straight street at regular intervals and date from 1911-12. Across the road from the Mulhouse Quadrangles a row of these stylistically similar engineers cottages (right) were built around the same time. 

The building along the main street (above) differ in architecture from those facing the -elevated- railway. Here these short terraces of 3 were erected in a mixed vernacular style, again with the typical white rendering and the brick details. The roof design is similar to that of the housing for engineers. All were built around the same time.

As the colony was expanded after 1913 a new architect was employed by the Building Department to design the housing. The result is strikingly different. Here a variation on the Mulhouse Quadrangle as an up-down with two apartments on the ground floor and two more on the second floor. The ground floor residents have gardens at the side whist the people living upstairs each have a garden at the rear. This design is a return to the local vernacular of red brick and orange roof tiles.

More housing from the third building phase of Terwinselen Colony. Again the blocks are placed at regular intervals. This time some variation in type is allowed for with a mix of terraces of 4 and terraces of three and the occasional semidetached block. All are designed in a similar style with few decorative details.