Garden Village Buiksloterham South: high density village feel

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 southern part was developed earlier and mostly by the Amsterdam Housing Service and the northern part was developed by several housing associations and the Amsterdam Housing Service combined, the two have a distinct feeling, thus separating them even further. The southern part -minus the distinct temporary housing of Disteldorp- will be shown first in this series of impressions.

The entrance to the southern portion of the garden village is emphasises by a semicircular square originally  with a public garden on either side of the central axis of the Vanderpeck Street. This entrance was also named after the original architect Jan Ernst van der Pek as Van der Pekplein (Vanderpeck Square). The street layout is fairly regular with short streets that bend away at a 45 degree angle. This formal entrance is inspired by English examples such as Letchworth Garden City.

The housing designed by J. E. van der Pek all have the distinctive banding in yellow brick on the ground floor (shown left). This simple device breaks up the long facades and visually lowers the building height. Such banding was a common feature of Dutch renaissance architecture. The housing is mostly two storeys high with an attic floor with large dormers. At the end of side streets and at corners the building height is often raised to three storeys with an attic floor under the roof. Here an example with a large gate that leads to a back passage that gives access to allotments and gardens.

The Meidoornplein is a large garden square with a small pavilion in the middle. This building that used to be a dispensary of bread and cheese for needy families is now used as an office.

The architecture throughout is fairly similar in appearance, Behind these brick facades only a few different types of houses are to be found. The doors amplify the rhythm of the architecture and help break up the long facades. The built out porches are reminiscent of farm architecture and can be on the side (left) or on the front (right). Porches with 4 doors indicate so-called over-and-under duplex houses.

The Jac. P. Thijsseplein is again a garden square and was named after the famous Dutch naturalist who founded the Society for the preservation of natural monuments in the Netherlands (Vereniging tot behoud van Natuurmonumenten in Nederland) colloquially knows as Natuurmonumenten. On one side of this garden square (as seen on the right) a single storey old peoples housing project was built in the 1930s. Originally this was a paved square with some trees in the corners.

The corners of the long rows are often swerved sideways to emphasise the adjoining open space or street junction. All these plots were used for special forms of housing, mostly shops. On the left an example with large arched shop windows. The high gable ends are used everywhere to break up the long facades and give them a rhythmic quality. Along central open spaces the faced are made more distinct by adding high bays (on the right).

There are no straight streets all street have a distinct kink and run of at an angle to prevent long lines of sight along the streets. This is a classic Unwinesque design device. High gables are also used repetitively, as well as the dormers and extended porches. This gives the streets a fairly uniform character and also indices a great sense of place. Originally the streets had no trees, as is evident in older pictures, but in many places small facade gardens were provided to create a village feel.

The only straight street in the garden village is the central axis, that is flanked by shops with small maisonettes above. The street has recently been repaved and now is a windy expanse of brick and concrete. Originally this space would have had elm trees planted here. A new double row of trees is also part of the redesign, but are yet to be planted.

Greenery concentrates in the central garden squares of every neighbourhood of the southern portion of the garden village. Here the Lupineplein (Lupine Square) with heavy plane trees and a central playground surrounded by shrubbery.

Around Geranium Street a post-war neighbourhood shows a very different architectural expression. These modernism-inspired rows of terraced housing have off-white rendered facades on a low grey plinth. The front doors are all red and are emphasises with a thin awning of the Dutch type. The gate on the Juliet balconies are painted red like the doors. Originally these houses had front gardens. Most have been paved over now though.

The log rows of houses were designed by J.F. Berghoef. These so-called Airey-houses replace two former schools that once stood here and fill up a small section of the garden village designed by  Van der Pek, that was never completed. The buildings set this later addition apart from the stylistically unified architecture by Van der Pek with its simple ornamentation by use of structural ornaments and variations in colour or shape.

On the edges other buildings can be found that don't adhere to the stylistic unit of Van der Pel's architecture. On the left the former church in a traditionalist brick style that refers to Romanesque architecture. On the right the large public house that was inspired by 17th century brick architecture from Holland.

A large garden square -Gentian Square- also lies at the heart of the only neighbourhood developed by a housing association south of the canal reservation (that is now Moss Square). The layout of streets mirrors those found further north. The architecture also differs considerably from the brick renaissance inspired architecture of Jan Ernst van der Pek. The houses are not built in terraces, but as closed city blocks. Thus the street spaces wrap around the buildings instead of the buildings following the public space -as is the core of Unwinesque design principles.

The architecture of this neighbourhood around Gentian Square makes little effort to disguise the high building density of the development. In line with the intensions for the whole garden village and the Unwinesque design aesthetic the architecture has a strong vernacular inspiration that is evident in the green weatherboarded gable tops that reference local historic architecture. The treatment of the blocks is however inspired by Art Deco Garden Court as were being built throughout Vienna at the time.