Between Development and Destruction
For almost 10 years I regularly drove the road to the school of my children. This week is the last final exam and this period of their lives is finished. And while I drove along this road so often, now, in the last moment, I start to make discoveries.
The country estate of Duivenvoorde
Boot shed at Duivenvoorde
Between the town of Leidschendam and the beginning of Voorschoten is the last bit of what is left between the towns of the Hague and Leiden of a traditional Dutch landscape. A landscape Aldous Huxley characterises as “the ideal plane surface of the geometry books, the roads and canals trace out the shortest distances between point and point… each rectangle of juicy meadowland contained between the intersecting dykes has identically the same area”. The rectangles of grassland are subdivided by ditches and the odd access road. The grassland is only sparsely interrupted by intentionally planted rectangular plots of wood. Rows of pollard willows line some of the ditches and give the horizontal surface geometry a regular vertical element. At the convergence of the parallel lines is the distant shape of a windmill.
Because of breeding birds the hiking path is closed from March to July. The rest of the year its closed because they build houses at the top right corner
Only few of the old farms built by the people who worked on this land can still be visible at the end of the straight driveways. Being so close to the court in the Hague many have been converted to country estates for the rich aristocrats who built their mansions which replaced the farm houses. But also of the mansions only few remain. Along this road there is only one, Duivenvoorde, in the middle of an english style landscape park which is a popular spot for a walk for the people living in the area.
The windmill at the top left corner of the previous picture
The grasslands have their own hiking paths, but now, in spring they are closed to protect the virds breeding in the meadow. The ditches around the rectangles of grass protect them from the biggest killers of our time, house cats and dogs let loose by careless owners.
Pollard willows
A couple of days ago I discovered an entrance to a park-like area which I did not notice before. A big sign announces the upcoming sale of luxury apartments on the county estate of Voorlei. From the street I see a couple of big brick buildings. People are getting in and out the terrain on foot or by bike and this makes my curious.
The church which was especially built for the psychiatric hospital
Already at the beginning of WWII the construction of a psychiatric hospital in Leidschendam had started on the grass-land of two farms at the edge of town. In 1945 the buildings were still unfinished. The space was used for interning members of the national socialist party. Finally, in 1948 the psychiatric facility “Hulp en Heil” (help and salvation) was opened for patients with nerve and mental diseases. It was opened by Princess Wilhelmina, the later queen. The complex with main building, pavilions and a U-shaped service building is designed in a business expressionist style and had its own church.
Storck's nest on top of the church
The modern church was built in 1960 by A. van Essen. After 50 years of regular church services the church was closed on November 13, 2016. It has an organ built in 1962 by the company D.A. Flentrop (Zaandam) and was rebuilt as late as 2005.
Entrance to the main building
The psychiatric institution was laid out in a big park in English landscape style. The park fulfils an important buffer function between the built up town centre of Leidschendam and the surrounding country side.
The place changed names regularly. After 1969 it was called Schakenbosch and became a treatment center for young people with mild intellectual disabilities and serious behavioral problems. After 2005 it was called Rivierduinen and in the future it will carry the name Voorlei.
The buildings were placed in a park-like setting
Because already in 2015 the psychiatric hospital was closed and the area sold to a developer to built houses.
The main building of the psychiatric hospital
After I have passed the entrance the noise of the busy main road stays behind. To the left is the former church. The top of the huge cross substituting a steeple serves as a nesting place for a stork. It looks like the terrain is used by enough visitors that somebody found it worth to set up a mobile cafe-bar in front of the church. The few buildings are spaced far apart and hidden by huge trees. There are ponds with water birds. Frogs croak. The air is filled with the symphonic orchestra of birds. The park even houses rare birds like owls and it is home to squirrels, which are otherwise very rare in the Netherlands. Bats have found a home in some of the abandoned buildings and the big trees.
The decisions of the city of Leidschendam to sell the park to a developer and built houses was not discussed with local residents. The original zoning plan did not foresee housing. There was no environmental study. The plan only provided for expensive housing. In due course the town council had to renounce the plans. Damage compensation payments for the developer were imminent.
The city tried to find a compromise to satisfy all parties and avoid costs. Eventually a plan was accepted which foresees the building of a maximum of 325 homes. Of these, at least 10% had to be cheap homes and 10% living spaces in the form of care facilities. The plan is to preserve as much as possible of the natural environment of the park and built the housing around the preserved existing buildings. The Main Building, Economy Building, Boiler House and Church will be converted to housing. The other buildings will be demolished and make room for new homes, greenery or water. The idea is to create a classic estate with park elements such as tree lanes, winding paths, water features and gardens.
Part of the park is now taken care of by the city
The city council is satisfied with their new plan. Does it not take into account everything? In the rapport there is a long entry on the availability of parking space. There are plans for cycle paths crossing the area. The church is to become a care centre.
This is not the only development plan of the city of Leidschendam. There are several other locations in the formerly empty agricultural area on the route to Voorschoten where they are busy. None of the plans for these areas and neither for Voorlei include any facilities. Public transport is mentioned in the plans with in total 2 lines. It is restricted to a bus stop with a bus line which is so poorly served that even school children complain about it.
Of course the building plans in all these areas only cater for the rich. Social housing in Voorlei is restricted to 5%. Since there are no facilities the future inhabitants will have to use their cars for every slice of bread they want to buy. This not only will increase the traffic, but it also will increase the necessity for additional parking space in the areas where the future inhabitants will have to do their shopping.
Most of the park of Schakenbosch looks like this
With the 325 houses will come 325 shitting dogs, 325 bird hunting cats and more than 325 cars. The park will be turned into a parking lot. Squirrels, frogs, owl, stork and song birds will succumb to the pressure of the new inhabitants. Maybe the trees will survive, the tranquility and the haven for wild life will be destroyed. While you now are prohibited to walk the hiking paths because of breeding birds, there will soon be no restrictions for speeding cars, leash less dogs and wandering cats.
If Aldous Huxley would come back in a few years to look for the straight geometrical features he appreciated in the dutch landscape he would search in vain. Everything will be covered with buildings and infrastructure. Historic buildings are dwarfed by motorway ramps, the waterways by the ubiquitous pleasure boats.
The branches of the pollard willows were cut and used for weaving baskets. Nowadays, nobody weaves baskets any more. When the branches are not cut and grow thick the trees are toppled over by the frequent storms. Another feature of the landscape will disappear. The sound of birds is replaced by the noise of traffic. The destruction of the natural landscape will lead to even more traffic by people looking for new places where they can get out of the mess and relax. With the consequence that these places will suffer as well.
"the last ride through plane geometry comes to a sudden end - in a town, in forests, in the sea coast, in a winding river or great estuary. It matters little which; All are fundamentally ungeometrical each has power to dissipate in an instant all those 'paralogisms of rationalism' (as Professor Rogier calls them ) which we have so fondly cherished among the polders. The towns have crocked streets thronged with people..." (Aldous Huxley)
Sources:
Aldous Huxley, Views of Holland, in: "Along the road", 1925
