Wilhelmiens in the African landscape
N.J. Clarke
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Abstract
The architectural and social context in the Netherlands from which Sytze Wierda and his compatriots journeyed the 11 000km to the Transvaal Republic (ZAR), has been described elsewhere in this publication (see Chapters 1 and 2) as has their architectural response – the main theme of this book. They arrived in a still undeveloped and partly untamed southern Africa, in which they had to find an appropriate architectural response. This essay will explore the translations of the Dutch landscape architectural and town planning traditions at the end of the C19, by presenting Dutch precedent for South African projects. The landscape residue of two institutions which together had a marked influence of the development of the South African landscape will be explored: the ZAR Departement Publieke Werken (ZAR DPW) and the Nederlandsch Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij (NZASM). But firstly a short sketch presenting the personal experiences of it the main protagonist of the ZAR DPW, Sytze Wierda, within the tradition of landscape architecture in the Netherlands at the end of the C19.