HARMONY IN HOUSING

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28080, 22 September 1956, Page 13

HARMONY IN HOUSING

A. C. ALLAN]

[By

Dutch Set Shining Example In Planning

LONDON, September 7. Think of the barrack-like blocks of flats that have soared—often as eyesores—in so many of the world’s cities Then consider architectural trends like those advocated by the “Delft School.” The Delft School, as the name indicates, is concerned with the development of housing in Holland, and a love of the traditional is its inspiration. But there are counterparts of it in other lands, though they are not so numerous as they ought to be. The purpose of the Delft School is to rebuild tumble-down sections of old towns and cities in a manner that accords with historical character, so that the new quarters which arise are not in jarring contrast to the appearance of the old. The little town of Delft itself, situated between The Hague and Rotterdam, is a shining example of what can be done by sensitive and thoughtful planners. Even though industry has moved there in fairly considerable concentration in recent times, the ancient charm of Delft has been carefully preserved. Throughout Holland, the multistoreyed blocks of flats so frequently sben in other countries are exceptional, though the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam do contain some. It is not that flat-dwellers are few among the Netherlanders, for in the larger towns most of them live in flats or maisonettes; but it is unusual for one building to contain more than three or four flats and the majority have their own front doors, approached by covered-in stairways if they are on the upper floors. The Dutch Government, too, has long taken a keen interest in the country’s building programmes, an interest that was intensified as a result of heavy damage during the war and a striking increase of population since —factors which seriously aggravated the housing-problem there just as it has done elsewhere.

The Dutch Government’s interest is reflected in the regulations it applies as well as in the financial aid it provides in connexion with building projects.

Stark and unattractive structural designs stand no chance of going beyond the blueprint stage. They must be in harmony with the mellowed architecture of Holland’s “Golden Age” when the accent was on gabled grace and beauty—which is not to say that the result is in any sense monotonous.

Nor does it mean that the new districts which have come into being are in the slightest degree lacking in the amenities of the mid-twentieth century.

Make a tour of a new industrial quarter in Amsterdam, that city whose network of canals has earned it the title of “the Venice of the North,” and you will see streets of trim, up-to-date highly-functional maisonettes that are a pleasure to the eye—and by no means heavy on the pocket. Here are wide avenues laid out with an emphasis on the decorative, and. incidentally, commemorating the names of Roosevelt and Churchill among others; and here are the abodes of wage-earners who clearly take an immense pride in the upkeep and appearance of their horties—each with its own front door.

They are homes you would like to enter, implying as they do in their aspect of comfort and cleanliness all that is best in family life. Under every gable it would seem as though each worker and his wife in those spruce streets of spotless dwellings have created an aura of tidy contentment. Tour the same quarter after dark, and the impression will be accentuated as you glimpse the interiors of brightly-lit. cosy rooms behind lacecurtained windows

The windows are wide, for the Dutchman and his wife like them that way. Blinds do not screen off the night, or shield the neat interior from the approving glance of the passerby, for the Dutchman and his wife are not concerned to conceal the snugness of their home in close privacy —even if they do value their own front door.

On the contrary, no householders could be more ready to welcome a visitor, and the wide unsecretive windows are symbolic as a measure of their hospitable natures. A cynic might say that here are folk who have a tendency to “show off.” Nothing could be further from the truth. Here are folk who delight in their homes.