Spangen is a neighborhood of
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...
,
Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
.
It is in the west of the city with about 10000 inhabitants. From the entrance of Spangen to the center is formed by the Mathenesserbrug across the Delfshavense Schie.
The design of the area is world-famous among architects and urban planners,
but for the casual visitor it is not the first thing that strikes. Spangen is socio-economically one of the poorest neighborhoods of the country. The population is over 85 percent of foreign origin.
Town planning and architecture
In 1909 the polder adjacent to the Kanal was drained and the city designated it land for housing the rapidly growing white collar population. Under a master plan drawn up the Gemeentelijke Woningdienst in 1917, all prominent architects designed housing blocks for the sector. There are blocks by Oud, Brinkman, Buskens, Kruithof en Meischke en Schmidt. The block on Justus van Effenstraat, the four storey
Justus van Effencomplex by
Michiel Brinkman introduced the concept of a shared private space, an inner courtyard over which the maisonettes focusses and on the third storey the maisonettes were accessed by a 3m wide continuous gallery. He called this a 'bovenstraat', which in English translates as a
Street in the sky. This concept was developed by
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , ; ), was a Swiss-French architectural designer, painter, urban planner and writer, who was one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture ...
for his
Unite d'Habitation
Unite may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music Albums
*Unite (1GN album), ''Unite'' (1GN album), 2016
*Unite (A Friend in London album), ''Unite'' (A Friend in London album), 2013
*Unite (Kool & the Gang album), ''Unite'' (Kool & the ...
in Marseilles, and later by
Peter and Alison Smithson for
Golden Lane Estate
The Golden Lane Estate is a 1950s council housing complex in the City of London. It was built on the northern edge of the City, on a site devastated by bombing during the Second World War. Since 1997, the estate has been protected by a grade II ...
and
Robin Hood Gardens, in London.
[
The Justus van Effencomplex remained popular into the 1950s but then suffered demographic change, and lack of investment. In 1984, the De Jonge architectural practice began work on renovating this housing complex in close collaboration with the Netherlands Department for Conservation. Pairs of maisonette were combined into a single four- or five-room apartment suitable for families with children. The access gallery was carefully restored and partly replaced, the communal baths became a crèche and meeting room.][
]
Sparta Stadion
In the middle of Spangen is the oldest football stadium in the Netherlands, the Castle of Sparta
Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...
from 1916. This stadium was completely renovated in 1999 and is now officially known as Sparta Stadion Het Kasteel
The Sparta Stadion, nicknamed Het Kasteel (; "The Castle"), is a association football, football stadium in Rotterdam, Netherlands. It is the home ground of Sparta Rotterdam. It has a capacity of 11,026.
History and layout
The stadium is located ...
.
See also
* Michiel Brinkman
References
External links
Rijksmonument 46868
Neighbourhoods of Rotterdam
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