How To Live Together?How To Live Together?

The Netherlands has a reputation for social housing. The introduction of the Housing Act in 1901 banned substandard and unhealthy housing and encouraged the construction of affordable rentals. Architects and designers, both commissioned and unsolicited, created many inspiring solutions for the housing of the future, proving that quality could go hand in hand with building large numbers of affordable homes.

Towards the end of the 20th century, this emphasis on the common good faded from urban development and housing construction. Housing associations were privatised to make way for the market. Can today’s designers help to redress the balance between market and community, between quantity and quality?

Between 1915 and 1925, numerous garden cities were built in the Netherlands and beyond. Unlike the impoverished working-class neighbourhoods in larger cities, they offered an improved quality of life for families from the lowest income groups. The aim was to promote social cohesion and liberate workers.

Hilversum's first municipal housing development was among the earliest examples of the garden city ideal within Dutch urban planning. Dudok emphasised that limited means certainly compel earnestness and simplicity yet need not forsake an aesthetically satisfying sense and form.

He allocated much of the available space to parks and recreational fields. Incorporating gatehouses and recessed and projecting façades creates an interplay of open and enclosed streets, while small squares and courtyards promote social cohesion.

Like the Metabolists in Japan and Superstudio in Italy, Dutch architects in the early 1960s also proposed megastructures constituting entire cities. The Hartsuyker couple conceived their Biopolis when the Dutch population rapidly grew and faith in technology seemed limitless.

Biopolis is a model for a compact and diverse city consisting of terraced homes on a pyramid-shaped substructure. Streets and urban facilities permeate the interior, while Biopolis’s surroundings remain vacant for natural areas and large-scale recreation. The project’s radical integration rather than segregation of functions garnered significant national and international attention.

The development of 't Hool is an example of collective private commissioning with the significant involvement of the current residents. Philips employees set up their own housing association in 1961 and asked architect Jaap Bakema to design the new residental area. The outcome is a well balanced composition with impeccably integrated urban planning, architecture, materials and landscaping.

The sketches for the residential area illustrate how Bakema translates his ideas about an open society into the built environment. The neighbourhood comprises housing units around a courtyard on either side of a green central zone. High and low-rise buildings alternate with various housing types, giving residents choices rather than imposing a specific living style. The layout of houses and apartments varies to accommodate different residents' housing preferences, such as drive-in houses, patio homes, and split-level residents.

The role of the expert in serving public affairs remains an ongoing topic of debate. During the urban renewal of the 1970s, architects and planners had to redefine their role. Empowered citizens demanded a voice in improving their communities. Architects shifted toward a more public-minded approach and studied existing neighbourhoods precisely, as seen in Pietro Hammel’s groundbreaking work in Rotterdam’s Oude Westen district.

Some architects even became activists, such as Paul de Ley, Jouke van den Bout, and Hein de Haan in Amsterdam, collaborating with squatters and local groups to propose alternatives to demolition and urban redevelopment practices.

A ‘wonderful chaos’, vibrant energy, and opportunities for spontaneous encounters define Architect Piet Blom’s Living as Urban Roof study – a series encompassing drawings, models, and brochures. This endeavour delved into innovative housing forms and a fresh communal model, amalgamating all aspects of urban living.

The residences are raised on pillars above ground, creating a collective space below where urban and community life can flourish. Blom challenged the rigid segregation of functions and the belief in rationality that defined early post-war residential neighbourhoods. He materialised these ideas in the Kasbah, realised in Hengelo in 1973.

The trio of housing blocks at the Spaarndammerplantsoen in Amsterdam earned the moniker workers palaces. Sculptural forms and carefully crafted details give the housing estate cohesion and allure. The unique alliance between government, housing associa-tions, and architects led to novel and surprising solutions and building types. Financial and legal constraints seemingly do not impede the construction of beautiful complexes and quality housing.