This book
is about the new town Almere in The Netherlands. This city does not count its
age in centuries, but in less than 50 years. The first eight families got keys to
their cabin chalets in 1975 and the 400 first occupants received their keys to
the constructed houses in 1976. It is a city that arose from the water, when in
1964 the construction of dykes began and in 1968 the polder Zuidelijk Flevoland
was reclaimed. Almere is the newest city in the Netherlands since 1975 and
became a municipality in 1984 and is now the eighth largest municipality in the
Netherlands with 230,000 inhabitants.
Unique book The book Almere
vanuit de wolken (Almere from the clouds) is a large and weighty book. The
book contains more than 200 aerial photos in landscape A4 format and weighs
almost 2 kilos. It is also a unique book, because the 200+ aerial photographs
show the development of the new town Almere from 1964 to 2021. Publishing house
Watermerk has made similar books of The Hague, Rotterdam and Dordrecht, but Almere
can show its entire history in aerial photos.The book
was created as a sequel to the exhibition Almere from Above, organised by the City
Archive of Almere from August 2020 to September 2021, with aerial photographs
of the development of the city, on display at the City Archive and at three
other locations in the city.
The
exhibition showed a limited selection of aerial photos from the collection of
the City Archive, from old black-and-white photos from the 1960s to recent colour
shots. From these, a selection was made for Almere Boven, which together tell
the story of the multi-kernel city and its enormous growth over the past 50
years.
The
exhibition showed a limited selection of the 25,000 aerial photographs in the
collection of the City Archive Almere. But the reactions to the exhibitions
asked for more. That was the reason for Michel Langendijk, together with Bart
Hofmeester of Aero Camera and Roel Dijkstra, to research material for a book.
Michel Langendijk had been involved in the composition of Almere Boven and Bart
Hofmeester (1921-2021), who had made aerial photographs of Almere since 1964.
Roel Dijkstra manages the collection of Aero Camera since the death of Bart
Hofmeester and he made the actual photos of 2020 and 2021. The book contains a
foreword by one of the pioneer urban planner Brans Stassen. There is also a
short introduction.
The photos
do not form just a series of sequential historical photographs, but show the
historical photograph with a current photograph, taken from the same point of
view. For example, the eight mobile homes surrounded by a wasteland in Almere
Haven are shown with photograph of the present buildings. This editorial
formula is maintained throughout almost the entire book.
Use
The book is
a nice book for an Almere resident to leave on a coffee table when welcoming visitors,
or to give as a present. But the book deserves a wider distribution.
For the
early inhabitants of Almere, the book is not only interesting to leaf through
and to search for their house (and/or former houses). I had the pleasure of
looking for photographs of the Bivak in Almere Harbour with the very first
Almere resident, a mobile home owner and police officer Wim Leeman.
(Insert) Mr Wim Leeman indicates where the eight mobile homes of the Bivak were situated; (left) the Bivak, (right) mobile offices.
But the
book can also be used by professionals in urban design and planning such as
urban developers, urban planners and architects. For them the book presents the
creation and rapid growth of a new town within half a century. The photographs
show the development of the city kernels, the green spaces in the neighbourhoods
and between the kernels, the infrastructure, the separation of residential
areas and industrial estates, the bus lanes and the network of cycle
paths.
Almere
from the clouds, compiled by Michel Langendijk, publisher Watermerk BV, Dutch
language, EAN 9789078388302, 264 pages, 1853 grams, 39.95 euros
