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Theo Baart - Bouwlust: The Urbanization of a Polder

Theo Baart - Bouwlust: The Urbanization of a Polder

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IOP/NAI, 1999. First edition. Softback.

Condition: Very good (in protective sleeve).

ISBN: 90-5662-1017

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. 

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.

Theo Baart grew up in this area (1960-1977) and since 1977 until 1999 he photographed the process of transformation. He is not prompted by nostalgia, but by amazement at the way in which progress manifest itself. 

 

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