Baart~Theo – Bouwlust, The urbanization of a Polder*
€75,00
Author: Theo Baart, Warna Oosterbaan, Tracy Metz & Nöel van Doorn. Poetry: Willem van Toorn Publisher: Ideas On Paper / NAi Publishers, Rotterdam Year: 1999 ISBN: 90 5662 101 7 Hardcover, English, first print, 246 pp., 240x280 mm, 240x280 mm, as NEW. Design Typography & Other Serious Matters. 2.000 copies Condition: ver good
"The Dutch countryside is under great pressure from increasing urbanization. Bouwlust depicts the transformation of Haarlemmermeer - a striking example of urban development - from an agricultural to a suburban area. Haarlemmermeer was reclaimed around 1850. Up until thirty years ago, the polder was used almost exclusively for agriculture. Urbanization of the polder began in the seventies of the last century. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, which had been isolated, expanded and joined to Hoofddorp; the polder's main village. Large new housing developments were grafted onto the village and the number of inhabitants increased ten-fold. A new landscape developed. The centre of this village was the scene of a struggle between the old and the new. The old lost. Now that it is almost completely disengaged from its past, the 'new town' is interchangeable with many other residential developments in the Netherlands. I grew up in this area (1960-1977) and since 1977 until 1999 I have photographed the process of transformation. I am not prompted by nostalgia, but by amazement at the way in which progress manifest itself. "