Purest of Spring

Although yellow and pink dominate springtime other colours, like white, can be abundant in places. White is not actually a colour, it results from the petals of a flower reflecting all the light back. Thus these blooms appear white to us. For most insects that can see ultraviolet light, however, these flowers are very colourful however often adorned with blotches and stripes. Most flowers that are called white are actually not completely colourless.

Puschkinia scilloides          Helleborus niger        Narcissus 'Royal Orange'

Changing ideas: planned suburbanisation around Utrecht

Utrecht in the province of the same name is the fourth largest city in the Netherlands with almost 328,00 inhabitants. The city is located on the eastern edge of the Randstad conurbation. Due to the central location within the Netherlands the city is an important transport hub.

The foundation date of the city is usually equated to the erection of a Roman castellum (Traiectum) as part of the Limes Germanicus around the year 50. The fort on the Rhine was abandoned in the third century. Around 650 the Franks build a church within the walls of the former Roman fortress which was quickly destroyed by the Frisians. In 732 the fortress of Traiectum -then known as Uut-Trecht- is bestowed on Willibrord the new Archbishop by Charles Martel. This is the real beginning of the present city. The settlement received city rights in 1122. The city was fortified with a wall and an outer moat with a canalised Rhine running through the city. Later the city was expanded and fortified in the Dutch manner with bulwarks and earthworks. In the nineteenth century these fortifications became obsolete and were demolished after the Nieuwe Waterlinie had been built east of the city in 1815. Combined with the railway -constructed in 1843- and new shipping channels -the Keulse Vaart of 1825 and the Merwede Kanaal of 1892- the centrally situated city grew quickly beyond the former city moat.

From 1880 onwards the city expanded in with working-class neighbourhoods such as Lombok (3), Ondiep (4) and Oudwijk, Wittevrouwen and Vogelenbuurt (1)  and middle-class neighbourhoods such as Elinkwijk (5), Tuindorp (2) and Oog in Al (3). Growth was especially rapid after WW2. The municipality of Utrecht doubled in size after parts of neighbouring Oudenrijn, Zuilen, Maartensdijk, Houten, De Bilt and Jutphaas were annexed in 1954. In the same year a structural plan was drawn up planning the growth of the city until 1970.  In this period several new suburbs were built like Kanaleneiland (1957-'71), Hoograven (1954-'65) and Overvecht (1960-'70). At the same time central government decided to spread urbanisation via new satellites around existing larger cities: the so-called urban growth centres (groeikernen). The first one designated was the New Town Houten in 1966. The New Town of Nieuwegein followed in 1971. In Utrecht the suburb of Lunetten (1976-'84) was built. The suburb of Maarsenbroek -adjacent to the Hooge Weide Industrial Estate was developed between 1972 and '86 as a new satellite of Utrecht (although never designated as a growth centre).

Utrecht knows a concentric urbanisation pattern. The old city of Utrecht (U) lies at the centre of the urban landscape. It is surrounded by neighbourhoods built before 1950 (1-5).The post-war suburb of Overvecht (6), Kaneleneiland (7), Hoograven (8) and Lunetten (9) and the University Campus Uithof (*) lie beyond. At some distance we find the expanded towns and villages of IJsselstein (IJ), Maarssen (M), De BIlt (B), Bilthoven (BH) and Zeist (Z) and de villages of Vleuten (v), De Meern (m), Bunnik (b and Odijk (o). At a similar distance we find the New Towns of Houten (10), Nieuwegein-Zuid / Vreeswijk (11) and Nieuwegein (12) and the suburb of Maarssenbroek (13). The most recent expansion is being built in Leidse Rijn (14), Vleuten-De Meern (15) and Houten-Castellum (16).

Other towns and villages around Utrecht also expanded rapidly after WW2. The small city of IJsselstein grew from the middle of the 1950s onwards and was even connected by a new tram to Utrecht via Nieuwegein. The villages of De Bilt and Zeist first saw the growth of villa parks for the well-off after WW1. Later they built small housing estates for working class people. After 1960 large scale expansion with high-rises was initiated, making both de facto satellites of  Utrecht, but with less affordable housing and a bigger portion of homeownership when compared to Houten and Nieuwegein.

In 1992 it was decided to expand Utrecht once again as the demand for housing and new employment areas was still strong. The focus of central government had shifted toward compact cities and it was decided to expand Houten and create a new suburb across the A2 motorway called Leidse Rijn and also build between Vleuten and De Meern. Work started in 1998 and is supposed to be finished by 2018.

The City of Utrecht comprises of the central city and a number of satellites that are either planned or have grown as a result of their proximity to the central city. The city is very compact, with only a few satellites truly separated from the central city, the rest is linked by vast employment areas and golf courses and parks.

Colourful Croci

The first Crocus varieties to flower are the so-called botanic croci (or crocuses). These small-flowered selections and hybrids produce more than one flower per shoot. The large flowered Dutch Crocus has a single but bigger flower per shoot. The small types naturalise readily, some will even self-seed. The colour range goes from yellow via cream and white to ice blue, lilac, mauve, violet blue and purple. Often the outer tepals are feathered in bronze or purple or have a slightly different shade than the inner tepals.

fltr: Crocus chrysanthus 'Cream Beauty', C. chry. 'Bleu Pearl' and the original Golden Crocus

New Towns in the Netherlands

As most Western European countries the Netherland quickly developed after WW2. So much so that from all the buildings in the country no less than 75% is from after 1945!. As a country of many small cities and towns urbanisation gave rise to piecemeal expansion with every council determined to secure both new employment and residential possibilities within their own territory. As a result the 1950s saw new housing estates and industrial estates developed on the edge of every city, town and village in the Netherlands. Growth was only less tempestuous in isolated areas. Growth and urbanisation was concentrated in Holland, Utrecht, North-Brabant and Guelderland.

To direct suburbanisation and growth the Dutch government decided to adopt a policy of New Towns and Centres for Growth. In a 1958 Policy Report the need for an 'Overflow Policy' was expressed with regards to the Randstad, a non-continual conurbation incorporating the four biggest cities Amsterdam, Rotterdam the Hague and Utrecht. The idea behind the 'Overflow Policy' was to not only accommodate urban expansion around existing urban centres but also expand pre-existing medium-sized cities (between 50,000 and 100,000 inhabitants in size). In 1960 the First Spatial Development Act laid down the principles of the centres for growth policy and dubbed it: coordinated deconcentration (gebundelde deconcentratie). The goal was to prevent rural areas from being completely overrun by suburbanisation. Rural settlement not designated for growth were thus only allocated 1% growth per year. As urban development was very much the result of factors outside zoning laws and planning by quota the result was that many small cities and towns still expanded rapidly, especially around Amsterdam and Rotterdam. The Second Spatial development Act of 1966 estimated that the Netherlands would grow from 12,5 million to 20 million inhabitant by the year 2000 (in reality this would turn out to be almost 16 million).

From 1972 planning policy shifts towards central control over spatial development by way of administrative agreements between central and local government, centralized land policy and financial incentives. The focus shifted from permissibility planning to enforcement planning. Near the most important cities so-called centres for urban growth (groeikernen) were appointed. These are: Alkmaar, Almere, Haarlemmermeer, Heerhugowaard, Hoorn, Huizen, Lelystad and Purmerend for Amsterdam, Capelle aan den IJssel, Hellevoetsluis and Spijkenisse for Rotterdam, Houten, Leusden and Nieuwegein for Utrecht and Zoetermeer for The Hague and Duiven, Westervoort (both Arnhem), Etten-Leur (Breda) and Helmond (Eindhoven).

Some of these centres for urban growth were existing towns that were expanded like Alkmaar, Etten-Leur, Helmond, Hoorn, Huizen, and Spijkenisse. These can be best characterised as expanded towns. Waalwijk is also an Expanded Town (for neighbouring Tilburg), but was scrapped as such after the initial designation. The town was expanded into a city nonetheless. Others should be typed as new towns. Of these Almere and Lelystad stand out as they have been built in Flevoland at the bottom of what used to be the Zuiderzee, now a polder. In the Haarlemmermeer, a drained lake, two new towns were developed: Hoofddorp and Nieuw-Vennep. The other new towns are: Capelle aan den IJssel, Duiven, Heerhugowaard, Hellevoetsluis, Houten, Nieuwegein, Leusden, Westervoort and Zoetermeer.

The centres for urban growth are distributed across the Netherlands with a clear focus on the western and southern part of the country. These areas were also historically the cultural centres. In the south they connect to the main Flemish cities like Antwerp, Bruges, Ghent, Brussels, Mechlin etcetera. We can distinguish New Towns (in orange) and Expanded Towns (in red). The New Towns are: Lelystad (1), Almere (2), Heerhugowaard (3), Purmerend (4), Hoofddorp (5), Nieuw-Vennep (6), Zoetermeer (7), Hellevoetsluis (8), Nieuwegein (9), Houten (10), Duiven (11) and Westervoort (12). The expanded Towns are: Hoorn (1) Alkmaar (2), Huizen (3), Leusden (5), Spijkenisse (6), Capelle a/d IJssel (7), Etten-Leur (8), Waalwijk (9) and Helmond (10).   

Besides these New Towns and Expanded Towns large new suburbs were planned and developed. The best known is probably Amsterdam-Southeast. Amsterdam also has Amstelveen and Amsterdam-North-Zaanstad as important suburban areas. For Rotterdam Hoogvliet resembles a New Town but wasn't planned as such. Other suburbs are IJsselmonde, Ridderkerk and Vlaardingen. The Hague was already surrounded by cities like Delft, Leiden and Gouda that grew fast, so there was only one New Town planned here. Towards Delft the suburbs of  Wateringen, Rijswijk, Voorburg and Leidschendam are located. The town of Alphen aan den Rijn grew into a satellite for the region, although never designated an official centre for growth. It is basically an Expanded Town. In Utrecht the suburban developments of Maarssenbroek and Kanaleneiland-Hoograven are built directly next to the city on land annexed from rural municipalities. To spread development away from the central city, it was also decided to designate Amersfoort a growth city. In other major cities suburban developments were planned, such as Veldhoven and Best (Eindhoven), South-Huissen (Arnhem), Wijchen (Nijmegen), Rosmalen (Bois-le-Duc), Reeshof (Tilburg) and Prinsenbeek (Breda).

The urban development -as envisaged in government policy- was to be concentrated in certain areas. Provisions for expansion were most needed around Amsterdam (1) and covered most of West-Frisia and Flevoland. The so-called Randstad-area also encompasses the urban regions around The Hague (2), Rotterdam (3) and Utrecht (4). The smaller centres are Arnhem-Nijmegen (6) and the Brabantian row of Breda (9), Tilburg (8), Bois-le-Duc (7) and Eindhoven (5). Large cities are shown in deep red. The planned suburbs are shown in tangerine.

The Fourth Spatial Development Act (1988) introduced the compact city as the new planning policy. The New Towns had led to a sharp increase in commuter traffic because the employment opportunities never paralleled the development of residential areas, so a strong dependency on the 'central city' remained. This was especially true around Amsterdam and Utrecht. Urban nodes within interconnected urban networks where the new core of government planning.

Public purple

 

The city's Parks and Gardens Department thinks of public spaces in bold statements. The grass verges between and along the Ring Road are often planted with trees to create more interest. The grass used to be cut regularly and had the character of a lawn. Nowadays these grass verges are cut much less which gives flowering plants a chance to develop. In places bulb have been planted to great effect. Large groups of Crocus are now in flower, greeting the late winter sun with their purple flowers for all the public to enjoy. Now everyone can see, spring is almost here!