Agnetapark, section two: a vernacular garden village on a regular layout

The twentieth century part of Agnetapark is both a factory village and a garden village. The formal layout echoes workers colonies in Essen by Krupp and the Campine workers colonies. The style of architecture is in line with Garden City Movement examples and firmly vernacular in character.  As in the older section, water is placed at the heart of the housing development. This is an early form of hydrologically neutral developing, a necessity in a low-lying polder.  

From the park the second park (a housing estate from the 1920s) has a formal gate to signify an entrance and formalise the distinction between the two sections of Agnetapark. The winged block forshortens the view and emphasises the curve in the street.  This with the gate feature are examples of Unwinesque design.

A view along low housing towards the higher block with apartments. As in the old sections the houses have small front gardens edged by a privet hedge. The colours of the woodwork have been recently restored and are based on classic colours used in farm buildings in Holland and Utrecht. With the use of the colours and the low roofline these buildings are similar to those used in other housing projects (Garden Village Ede and Spaarndammerbuurt).

The layout is formal with a grid of streets around a central public garden with a large pond in the middle of it. Low housing was built in terraces along both the northern and southern edge of this public garden. (Here: Vijver Noord).

Two close-like cul-de-sacs flank the Robert Coumansplein as extensions of the straight streets flanking the public garden with the pond. The houses are grouped in terraces in the typical style of the whole estate.

The R. Coumansplein is a garden square that has terraced housing on three sides. On the north side this public space abuts the factory site of the yeast factory. The streets are lined by pollarded limes,. This is in keeping with the vernacular theme of this estate. The garden square was -badly- redesigned in the 1980s (and is therefore not shown in this series of pictures). 

These daffodils have many cousins growing around the housing estate and in the park. Daffodils do especially well on these soils with high ground water levels. This type with an orange cup I find especially attractive. In several places these  gate-features break up the long terraces and give access to the paths that lead to the back gardens. Such back paths are a common feature in German and Dutch garden villages and suburban housing estates.

At either end of the public garden at the heart of the "second park" higher blocks have been placed to allow for a more varied spatial and functional make up of this estate. There are three such blocks with up-and-down housing (a ground floor flat with a duplex flat on the two storeys above. The blocks have been detailed as all the other architecture with a long strip of dormer windows providing light and air for the bedrooms underneath the roof.

Looking back across the central pond the other higher block at the other end can be seen. This housed workshops on the ground floor originally, but has now been converted into housing completely. The public garden is dominated by the elongated pond, with only a narrow strip of grass trees and shrubs around it.

A view back towards the public garden with the pond. The regular layout of the streets is quite evident here. Instead of pollarded limes, here pollarded plane trees have been used.

On the edge of the estate a block with commercial space on the ground floor and an apartment above dating from the 1960s has been replaced by a row of terraced housing in a style in keeping with the listed adjoining estate. The architects have done a good job as seen on the left. This is seldom seen in the Netherland where architects are trained to create contrasting interventions. Some of the housing in this second phase comprises of larger family housing for middle management. Again the front garden has a low privet hedge.

The Laan van Altena forms the southern edge of the second park. Part of the houses looks out over another pond. It actually isn't a pond but part of the drainage system around the old city of Delft. The listed building is a pumping station built here around 1930. The pond is in fact part of the Wetering (Dutch for a main drainage channel in a polder).

The area directly south of Agnetapark was developed for private housing. These dwellings were also built to house employees of the Yeast and Methylated Spirit Factory. They display a wide range of styles and also vary considerably in size and height.

This block on the edge of the old park was built instead of a planned row of middle-management cottages. It is similar to the other double height blocks, but was intended as family housing and not divided in two flats.