The first regional plan: IJsselmonde
Commissioned by private Rotterdam investors, architectural firm Grandpré Molière, Verhagen & Kok develops an expansion plan for Rotterdam’s south bank in 1921. The Netherlands’ first ‘regional plan’ includes the entire IJsselmonde island. Space is needed for intensive industrialisation and working-class districts, as well as for heavy infrastructure, greenery, and recreational areas. Inter-city connections remain focused on the centres, although the plan already includes the Maastunnel (completed in 1942) and Van Brienenoord Bridge (built in 1965). The plan targets a gradually more widely dispersed built-up area to the outside and a smooth transition to open, green-fringed recreational areas, with no apparent consideration of agricultural function. Although Rotterdam has no right to make decisions about the rest of the island, the plan is decisive for spatial planning of the entire area. This leads to building up virtually all of IJsselmonde, with suburban sprawl, disjointed villages, and a great deal of intersecting infrastructure. The beautifully designed plan features outlined reservations for future development and, as a result, remains relevant for a long time.
Grandpré Molière, Verhagen & Kok, Left bank expansion plan, Survey plan of IJsselmonde, (Rotterdam 1921). Coll. S/T V.1064, 70 x 119 cm.
More chapters
1. Omnibus Kaart
Horse-drawn tram of Amsterdam In congruence with the commissioning of the Amsterdam-Haarlem railway line in 1839, a private company was granted a municipal concession to operate an ‘omnibus’, a horse-drawn bus in the municipality of Amsterdam. This initiative marks the advent of modern urban logistics. We will have to wait only another 30 years for…
2. Distribution of cholera
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3. Map of Amsterdam
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4. De Jordaan
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5. Amsterdam-West
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6. Expansion Plan Amsterdam
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7. Nieuwe Kaart ’s Gravenhage
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8. ’s-Gravenhage
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9. Expansion plan ‘s Gravenhage
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10. Gemeenten Eindhoven etc.
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11. Municipality of Apeldoorn
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13. Expansion plan Utrecht
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14. Municipality of Groningen
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15. London and Westminster
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16. Religious Worship
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17. Functional Analyses
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18. Travaux de Paris
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19. Les égouts
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20. Plan von Berlin
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21. Pharus-Plan
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22. Environs de Moscou
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23. Moscow’s Land Categories
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24. Le Kaire
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25a,b. Greater Cairo
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26. Tokyo
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27. Tokyo Aera
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