oa Bouwlandschappen

Building landscapes

A drawing by artist Jan Hoynck van Papendrecht (1858-1933) can be understood as a view of the f irst buildings along Amsterdam’s Van Eeghenstraat, as seen from his rear window. The late 19th-century method of raising polder meadows for urban expansion is also clearly visible on a hitherto mislocated drawing by Gerrit Haverkamp (1872-1926) of a building site in Amsterdam Oud-West. The chronological development of raising building sites can still be acknowledged from height differences in Amsterdams urban fabric. Building landscapes are rather underexposed in Dutch historical geography as a seemingly temporary situation. However, they are an intrinsic and sometimes longer-lasting part of the landscape’s biography and deserve more attention than they have received until now.