A New Neighborhood From Scratch in the Netherlands

"The new district, Ypenburg, is conceived as an urban field between the cities of Delft and The Hague. It comprises a linear framework of public spaces, with different “fields” in between.

Masterplanner Frits Palmboom has said of it: “The framework creates urban conditions that will only later be cashed by the architecture. But this framework is more than just a grid of lines and public space. It possesses its own architectural dimension as well, a tangible form”.

Palmboom’s framework is strongly designed and makes hardly any use of the relics of the former military landscape. Only the former runway can be recognised and then merely in a metaphorical sense: a trace of the landing strip’s footprint is inscribed in the plan, but the reinforced concrete monster itself has gone."