Designing the New Land
A historical look into the design of the Noordoostpolder
F. Schwegman (TU Delft - Architecture and the Built Environment)
J.A.M. Baeten – Mentor (TU Delft - Teachers of Practice / A)
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Abstract
The design of the Noordoostpolder not only included the placement of the villages, trees farms and land lots, but the social structures were also drawn out into detail. A strict selection was applied for those who wanted to have a chance of getting a farm. But did these two different factors – selection and architectural design – relate to each other in any way? Architecture always has a social aspect to it, since designs are made for the people. Social interactions were already studied in the 1930s as the Noordoostpolder is being developed, but did they influence the architecture in any way? Things were adjusted to make the designs of each design aspect more suitable for the new inhabitants. These things included more leisure space in greenery around villages, a design for Kraggenburg which was solely formed by social layers in the community and changes in the floorplans of the farmhouses to accommodate for the function of a farm. These changes were broad, however, and not adjusted to specific parameters that would follow from the selection. This was a very difficult task to achieve, due to the varying characters within the selection, the resistance by the Direction itself and the lack of knowledge about the candidates at the time of the design phase.