European Landscape Architecture: Best Practice in Detailing

Project history
There has been a structural housing shortage in
the Netherlands ever since the Second World War.
To meet the demand for good housing over the
years, the government – particularly the Ministry of
Housing, Spatial Planning and Environment – has
developed a succession of housing policies. First,
there were large estates bordering directly on towns
(jerry-built post-war housing), then satellite towns,
such as Houten (Utrecht), Zoetermeer (The Hague),
Hoofddorp (Amsterdam) and Almere (Amsterdam).
Attention then turned to urban renewal and in the
1990s to the so-called VINEX estates.

The various kinds of government policy have all
been characterised by a large-scale project-based
approach. Sometimes, as in the case of urban
renewal, it was underlain by social considerations.
At other times, as with post-war reconstruction and
the satellite towns, it was guided purely by hard

public housing figures. More recently, individual

investors have had a particular influence on policy.

The VINEX estate policies, developed in the 1990s,

were intended to provide a total of 650,000 new

homes before 2005, a scale of construction compa-

rable to the post-war reconstruction period.

The VINEX concept is currently being criticised from

all sides because of its large scale and uniformity of

approach. Each VINEX estate has a designated area,

a designated programme, a designated budget, a

designated period for completion, and so forth. As

Frits Palmboom, a well-known town planner in the

Netherlands, has said, it resembles a military opera-

tion, something in which spontaneity and temporal-

ity are almost completely lacking.

After many years of planning and land acquisition,

construction is currently in full swing. The estates

have an average density of 40 housing units per

6.11

Map of the landscape in former days

The Portland Neighbourhood Park, Albrandswaard