Amsterdam North: a necklace of garden villages on polder land

In the Y polders north of Amsterdam several garden villages were built between 1910 and 1960 to provide new and better housing for the working classes of the city that were often living in substandard housing or even squalorous conditions. The ideas of the Garden City Movement were picked up by socialist politicians and union leaders eager to improve the lives of their rank and file. The nineteenth century polders of the former Y-bay were seen as a perfect location as the city already owned the land, the city councillors wanted to expand the industrial activities on this side of the North Sea Canal and the rural surroundings of Waterland would both improve health and temperance of the intended working class population.

The garden villages in the Polder Watergraafsmeer, Polder Nieuwendammerham, Polder Buiksloterham and North Polder owe their existence to the progressive city councillors Floor Wibaut (1859-1936) and Monne de Miranda (1875-1942) together with Arie Kepler (1876-1941) the director of the Municipal Housing Service Amsterdam. Together they are responsible for the building of 30,000 new houses in Amsterdam between 1910 and 1940. In the Polder Buiksloterham, that was drained in 1851, successive neighbourhoods of social housing were developed starting with Disteldorp (1918). Later the so-called Van der Pekbuurt (1919), Bloemenbuurt (1921) and Floradorp (1928) were built that together make up the garden village Buiksloterham. The area was nicknamed De Rimboe (The Wilds) due to its isolated location and 't Rooie Dorp (The Red Village) due to the socialist sympathies of the inhabitants.

Development of new garden village satellites had started in 1910 with the first so-called Vogelbuurt (literally Bird Neighbourhood) on the southern tip of Volewijk next to the sluices and locks in the North Holland Canal. This Garden Village Volewijck was expanded in two building campaigns starting in 1916 and 1927. Development of the proposed necklace of garden villages started in 1919 with the Garden Village Oostzaan and the southern part of the Garden Village Buiksloterham: the Van der Pekbuurt named after the principle architect Jan Ernst van der Pek. Around the same time planning for the Garden Village Nieuwendam starts although building doesn't start before 1923. The last garden village to be built, starting in 1930, was the Garden Village Buiksloot -not in a polder, but like Garden Village Nieuwendam on so-called old land. To prepare for the development the area was raised with sand and slurry which resulted in the colloquial Tuindorp 't Blauwe Zand (Blue Sand Garden Village) after the bluish colour of the manganese-rich material used. After  WW2 a traditionalist neighbourhood was built east of Garden Village Oostzaan. This development can also be typified as a garden village although the typical Unwinesque treatment of the streetscape is mostly absent. This Fruitdorp (Litterally Fruit Village) was built on a former sludge deposit and is also known as Terrasdorp (Terrace Village) as a result of the higher elevation. The inhabitants call this area Tuttifruttidorp after the tutti-frutti dried fruit mix. 

Amsterdam-North comprises of both old land and new land (in tangerine) that are separated by the old sea dyke. Behind the dyke there are some old polders: Buikslotermeerpolder (P1), Wilmkebreekpolder (P2) and Kouhornerbraakpolder (P3). The empoldered sections of the Y estuary are: Buiksloterhampolder (P4), Noordpolder (P5) and Nieuwendammerhampolder (P6).The historic settlement are all located on the old land: Oostzaner Overtoom (O), Landsmeer Zuiderbuurt (L), Kadoelen (K), Buiksloot (B), Zunderdorp (Z), Nieuwendam (N), Schellinkwoude (S), Ransdorp (R), Durgerdam (D) and finally Tolhuis (T) on the Volewijk peninsula at the beginning of the North Holland Canal (C). The garden villages that were developed here from 1910 onwards are: Volewijck (1), Disteldorp (2), Vogelbuurt (3), Van der Pekbuurt (4), Oostzaan (5) with the post-war extension (5*), Nieuwendam (6), Buiksloterham (7), Buiksloot (8), Woonschool (9) and Fruitdorp (10).