Garden Village Buiksloterham North: a myriad of stylistic references part 1

As a result of the canal reservation that still separates the northern and southern sections of the Tuindorp Buiksloterham these are widely regarded as two separate garden villages. As the northern southern part was developed by several housing associations and the Amsterdam Housing Service combined,  this section can be subdivided in a number of stylistically uniform  developments that will be shown in a two-part series of impressions. This first part will focus on the two northern neighbourhoods: Floradorp and Zomers Buiten.

The Florapark was planted in 1927 and provides a green lung separating the garden village from the North Holland Canal. Providing leisure space was an important part of the ideals of the Garden City Movement and was translated to a public park along the lines of a German 'Volkspark' (the name in Dutch is the same by the way) with a public pool.

A gate forms the entrance to the municipal neighbourhood of the garden village from the Floraweg (Flora Road) hence the name Floradorp (Village of Flora). From this point there used to be a foot[path to a bridge that ran to the village of Buiksloot. Such gate buildings are a reoccurring phenomenon, used both to present the garden village as a separate entity and make control over the inhabitants possible.

The often curved streets lined with short terraces and semidetached houses with small front gardens are very much in keeping with the Unwinesque design aesthetic. This can't be said of the buildings themselves that have a distinct modernist design that fits with New Objectivity. The buildings of Floradorp were designed by J. H. Mulder (1888-1960) an architect who worked for the Amsterdam Housing Service all his career.

The bold use of colour on the rendered facades is used to great effect and underlines the modernity of these dwellings and visibly sets them apart from the squalorous brick-built tenements most of the residents came from. All buildings have a maximum height of 3 storeys and are all built with pitched roofs. Only two wall colours were used: a bright pink and a light blue. The rendered walls thus contrast heavily with the tiles roofs in orange and orange-red.

Based on the Almshouses of old a provision was made to include homes for the elderly. This took the shape of an oval of small houses around a central private courtyard garden. The original buildings from 1929 were destroyed by a bomb during WW2 and stripped for wood afterwards. This meant they had to be rebuilt in 1949. The houses are reminiscent of the small dyke houses so common around Amsterdam with their steep gables. Pr

The modernist vocabulary of the design shows clearly in the details and materials used. All doors are of a same simple shape in the same deep blue colour. The door surrounds are tiled with dark grey tiles on the pink houses and light grey tiles on blue buildings. The same tiles are used on corners as an embellishment along the lines of Unwinesque design principles. Lighter grey tiles are used to cover side extensions. The tiles used for the low plinth along the bottom of all buildings is in a contrasting shade of grey to the colour used for the door surrounds.

As a result of the rendered walls in blue (or pink) this part of the garden village is very distinct. It is no wonder that it was given a separate name as it differs in appearance as well as in landlord (the city of Amsterdam instead of a Housing Association).The coloured rendered walls are very uncommon in the Netherlands and are more reminiscent of Germany.

A large green square with shops around it forms the entrance to the largest single housing association portion of the garden village from the main road. The treatment of public space that is emphasised in the placement of the buildings and the curve of the building lines are a typical Unwinesque design principle. The focus of the congruent lines that edge Zomers Buiten lies beyond the through route on a small garden square.

The neighbourhood south of Floradorp is also known as Zomers Buiten (Country Retreat for Summer) after the name of the Housing Association that built the houses here between 1925 and '27. The layout of the streets on this trapezoid piece of the garden village has a rather formal quality emphasised by two garden squares. The streets are mostly straight with similar housing in long terraces on both sides.

The style of architecture is semi-traditional with a strong influence of expressive modernist brick architecture. The ground floor had darker bricks with a lighter layer above thus breaking the high facades. Due to renovations of the facades the bricks have been painted in  colours close to the intended scheme. All doors are the same and have this moss green colour. The same colour is used for the window frames. To create interest in the streetscape the roofline is lowered in some long rows of terraced housing.

The buildings in this part of the garden village are more urban than those in neighbouring Floradorp due to the longer length of the facades and the greater height of 2 storeys with a fully habitable loft underneath the pitched roofs. These bedrooms in the loft space all have dormers that form long ribbons on the roofs. All dwellings have been renovated in 2003 and have been sold off since with stringent rules for the facades as the whole of the garden village has been listed as an ensemble.