Dutch Suburbia (aerials)

[SHiRO]

pics by MopperSmurf, FTD Forum



This is Zoetermeer, a The Hague suburb, population 119,293.
Zoetermeer means "Sweeter Lake"...one of its nicknames is Sweet Lake City.
Oddly enough, it's also the only place in the Netherlands which has a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
().

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoetermeer
In Dutch (more pics) http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoetermeer

[mhays]

The Dutch sure do a good job with suburbia. That manages to be dense, quiet, and incredibly bikeable. My only qualm is that newer Dutch architecture tends to be pretty boxy.

[cabasse]

always appreciate seeing something new. what kinds of transit are available nearby?

i think i'm going to go put on some kettel.

[SHiRO]

If you look closely, you'll see train tracks in almost every picture.

Zoetermeer is connected to the RandstadRail network, which connects the subwaysystem of Rotterdam to the tramnetwork of The Hague.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RandstadRail





There also are buslines and a connection to the national heavy rail system (grey lines on the map - RandstadRail is the red lines).
Zoetermeer is only 11 km (7 miles) from Central The Hague and 15 km (9 miles) from Central Rotterdam.

[JRinSoCal]

Those are nice suburbs. America needs to learn from the Europeans.

[Austinlee]

that's a pretty big suburb.

[James Bond Agent 007]

It looks so well-planned and orderly.

[Echo Park]

i think you guys tend to overglorify europe. There isn't much difference between these and some american suburbs. The homes appear to be blandly uniform and cookie cutter, a maze of identical buildings. looks like you need a car to get around and i dont see a lot of character in these pictures. and these suburbs aren't really more dense than a lot of suburbs you'd see in california. all the green maybe attractive but thats no fault of european planning, just mother nature. the only major thing separating this suburb and any american one is availability and proximity of a rail network which is definitely something we need to take from the europeans.

[Yankeebiscuitfan]

Originally Posted by Echo Park

i think you guys tend to overglorify europe. There isn't much difference between these and some american suburbs. The homes appear to be blandly uniform and cookie cutter, a maze of identical buildings. looks like you need a car to get around and i dont see a lot of character in these pictures. and these suburbs aren't really more dense than a lot of suburbs you'd see in california. all the green maybe attractive but thats no fault of european planning, just mother nature. the only major thing separating this suburb and any american one is availability and proximity of a rail network which is definitely something we need to take from the europeans.

Don't overestimate the Dutch railway system. In the Randstad (big cities in the West of the country, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague for example) it is ok, but the more you get to the East and the South, the worse the system gets.

[flar]

The repetition and organization makes it look like simcity

[Grumpy]

Nice aerials from Zoetermeer.
Anything planned on that round piece of land ?

[staff]

Originally Posted by Echo Park

i think you guys tend to overglorify europe. There isn't much difference between these and some american suburbs. The homes appear to be blandly uniform and cookie cutter, a maze of identical buildings. looks like you need a car to get around and i dont see a lot of character in these pictures. and these suburbs aren't really more dense than a lot of suburbs you'd see in california. all the green maybe attractive but thats no fault of european planning, just mother nature. the only major thing separating this suburb and any american one is availability and proximity of a rail network which is definitely something we need to take from the europeans.

First of all, "Europe" is a pretty broad definition. There are Dutch suburbs, there are British suburbs, there are Greek suburbs and so on - and they tend to differ a lot from country to country.

This particular suburb doesn't seem to be a "maze of identical buildings" at all (just look at this picture), and you would definitely not need a car to get around in this place. If you know anything about Dutch society and planning, you would know that this whole area is filled with bicycle roads and that public transportation in form of buses and rails are within walking distance from every single building.

Honestly, I can't see many similarities at all between Zoetermeer and your random American suburb.

[pablosan]

Looks great.

[SHiRO]

Originally Posted by staff

First of all, "Europe" is a pretty broad definition. There are Dutch suburbs, there are British suburbs, there are Greek suburbs and so on - and they tend to differ a lot from country to country.

This particular suburb doesn't seem to be a "maze of identical buildings" at all (just look at this picture), and you would definitely not need a car to get around in this place. If you know anything about Dutch society and planning, you would know that this whole area is filled with bicycle roads and that public transportation in form of buses and rails are within walking distance from every single building.

Honestly, I can't see many similarities at all between Zoetermeer and your random American suburb.

Thanks, I wanted to respond to that but didn't because this is a photo forum mainly.
Of course you are entirely right. Echo Park, what were you thinking?

[SHiRO]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Nice aerials from Zoetermeer.
Anything planned on that round piece of land ?

Hmmm. Looked it up on Wikimapia, but I'm not sure what it is...

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=52.066...8&z=18&l=0&m=h

[Jeff_in_Dayton]

What impressed me most was the working in of greenbelts and parkspace into the design. Not just as seperation belts, but drawing fingers of landscape into the heart of the developments. Plus a lot of pathways for I guess pedestrians and bikes are visible. And the open space is landscaped with quite a bit of trees and so forth, not just barren open space.

Also the integration of single and multi family housing in the same developments (one sees this in Germany, too).