Tuindorp Pathmos: the suburban garden city ideal realised

The garden village Pathmos in Enschede is one of the best early examples of social housing (1914-1928) along the lines of the principles of the Garden City Movement in the Netherlands. It takes direct inspiration from English examples of cottage estates built by the LCC. This (sub)urban ensemble is still intact and in use as social housing. The architect seems to have also been involved in the design of De Riet garden village in Almelo as the details and housing types are very similar.

This impressive gate on the Haaksbergerstraat between two double shops creates a formal entrance to the garden village and emphasises its uniqueness. The gate on this side was to be used by the workers employed by the Jannink family in their factories further along this main road.

After the initial gate a second gate presents itself in white flanked by short terraces in the typical red brick and orange clay roof tiles. The dwellings on the corners are emphasised by rotating the roofline.

The Spinnerplein (Spinner Square) is a roundabout with a small public garden at its centre. The Pathmosstraat (Pathmos Street) runs through here. This square is located where once the mansion Pathmos House stood.

The building line follows the street space it envelopes thus adding to the desired spatial effect. This spatial design device is often used in garden villages along Unwinesque design principles.

Most streets have a gentle curve with long terraces of working-class housing. The long terraces are visually broken up by the triangular protruding gables and the rhythmically placed dormers. The roofline usually runs parallel to the street in Dutch garden villages.

The bulk of the housing has been built in red brick that was produced locally. The doors received special treatment with the addition of an upper ledge with sculpted supports. The windows are of a simple construction and are still painted in the original colour combination of moss green and cream.

The junction of Spinnerstraat (Spinner Street) and Weverstraat (Weaver Street) opens up into a informal square with shops in an arcade on one side and a large complex with community hall, school and medical post on the other side.

Most streets with the smaller types of working-class housing have no front gardens. This was a common feature of such garden villages in the Netherlands that were built on the instigation of industrialists, as it was feared that neglected front gardens would lead to an unsightly frontage and even vermin. The streets would have been planted with trees however. These have been replanted in some streets, but most are now laid out to provide street side parking.

Great attention is paid to the corners. Here an inverted corner with a (former) corner shop on each corner of the angled volume. The shops on the corner of the Bombazijnstraat (Bombasine Street) and Ververstraat (Dyer Street)  are very distinctive with the large shop windows.

At the heart of the garden village a small park was planted, although in name it is a square (Ainsworthplein). It has a large pond with fountain, playground, grass, trees and flowerbeds. This central green space commemorates Thomas Ainsworth, an English textile technician who laid the basis for the textile industry of Twenthe.

Small greens with houses curved around it, are located at the junction of the Ruwerstraat (Rougher Street) and Buitenweg (Outer Road) with the Sterkerstraat (Starcher Street). The smaller of the two is the one on Ruwerstraat shown here.

On some corners a covered porch is used to emphasise the corner of a block where two houses meet. In other places two sections of the block are angled to create a concave building line, opening up the corner. In some places the buildings are built in brick that is painted white. This was done to break the possible monotony of the red brick buildings.

The houses that wrap around the large green on the edge of the Ainsworthplein at the beginning of the Buitenweg have all been painted white. This provides a sharp contrast between the green of the leaves, the white of the facades and the bright orange of the clay roof tiles.

The central ensemble with central gate on the junction of the Sterkerstraat and Calicotstraat (Calico Street) also stands out in the same way from the surrounding housing in red brick. The formal symmetrical ensemble lies at the heart of the Janninksbleek section of the garden village Pathmos.

The wide Pathmossingel (Pathmos Belt road, literally encircling road) is planted with large trees. The long terraces of low houses in red brick follow the curves of the road as it snakes through the garden village.