Hans van der Meer - The Netherlands off the Shelf

Paradox, 2012. First edition. Softback.

Condition: Like new.

ISBN: 978-90-802655-0-9

Hans van der Meer’s contemporary Dutch townscapes capture a peculiar tension at the heart of suburban sub-modernity.  The rational, structured, convenience that was supposed to free us all from drudgery has produced soulless spaces at the heart of our civic culture.  These are the domains of a quiet, ordered, subsistence capitalism – low cost supermarkets, car-parks, recycling bins.  Box-like retail units, vernacular housing and pastiche traditionalism smudged smooth-edged, into a single, illegible ‘public private’ space.  It is all supposed to be drawn together by standardised street-furniture, ‘designer’ lighting, and soft flows of undulating block-paving: landscapes at once instantly recognisable and utterly forgettable.