This Town PROVES We Can Still Build Beautiful Cities

This new Dutch town proves that we can still build beautiful new cities. Meet Brandvoort, a charming cyclist and pedestrian friendly neighborhood near Helmond. It is special in multiple ways, because it has the structure of a traditional Dutch fortified town. But it is brand new and equipped with all modern luxuries. Some thought that this experiment would fail, but instead the concept worked extremely well, creating a popular place to live and solid proof that the principles of And not only that, but a large part of the housing in Brandvoort is actually affordable or even consists of social housing, instead of just being a resort for the ultra rich. But is this the recipe for better cities worldwide? Or can we improve on this town? And what is the future of Brandvoort? I went there to find out. Welcome, I'm Ruben from The Aesthetic City, a platform devoted to making our cities a little bit more beautiful and livable. Brandvoort and I go way back. In 2009, I already went to Brandvoort to take pictures. Because this town is one of a kind. I was curious and excited to experience what a new traditional town would be like. Back then, only around half was finished. Today, in 2024, the ambitious project is almost done, including its surrounding neighborhoods. And the town is a success. The individual face is sold easily and the residents are happy. But the existence of this town is very unlikely. It was criticized by adherents of modern urban planning, because it would just be a copy of an old town. Even worse, it would use historicizing or retro architecture. And in a country with people that regard themselves as so incredibly forward-thinking and innovative, that is of course not done. But, as you will see in this video, this completely new town wasn't built out of nostalgia. Instead, it aimed to fit the place where it was built and used the successful, pragmatic ideas that people have applied for centuries. But first, how was Brandenvoort founded? In the 1990s, the population of the Netherlands was growing and more housing was needed. The Dutch National Planning Committee developed the plan, the so-called Vierdenota Ruimtelijke Ordening Extra, or Fourth Memorandum on Spatial Planning Extra. This plan called for the expansion of cities in specific areas, which would be named VNEX locations, as an abbreviation of the name Vierdenota Extra. And Brandenvoort was such a location. Originally, it was situated in the municipality of Meerlo, a small agricultural settlement, but it was annexed by the bigger city of Helmond for development. Few of the VNEX locations would be as special as Brandenvoort would become. They would have weird or plain and monotonous architecture. They would be sleepy suburbs, just expanding on the edge of town. Brandenvoort was to be very different. For the plan, two brilliant architects were recruited. First of all, Rob Creer. This is the older brother of Leon Creer, famous for Cayala and Poundbury, which you might know from some of my videos. Rob Creer sadly passed away recently. He called Brandenvoort one of his crown achievements. Then there was Christoph Kohl, an experienced and prolific German architect and urbanist, who cooperated with Creer on the design. The companies Wissing and Grondmeij cooperated as well. And Paul van Beek, who designed the landscape. The design team did something very different than in regular projects. They chose for the design of a typical fortified town, as can be found in the province of Brabant, where it is located, surrounded by more suburban, rural outer neighborhoods, or buitens. All the buildings would relate to the typical local Brabant architecture. Construction began around the year 1998 and in 2007, the first phase was complete. Instead of being just an expansion of the existing city of Helmond, Brandenvoort would be its own community, with De Veste being its core. De Veste is the part that looks like a fortified town, and the buitens around it are named Schuttsboom, Brandt, Steppenkolk and the newer Hazenwinkel, Leverdonk and Kranenbroek. I know, that's a lot of Dutch to process. Buildings were designed by Creer and Kohl, some by the firm Breitman & Breitman, and many by Scala Architecten, a Dutch firm led by Mieke Bosse and Peter Drijver. Scala already had a lot of experience designing affordable, locally inspired architecture in great numbers. Apart from these firms and many others, like LSWA, there would be another group of architects who would shape the future of this place. An Italian professor and his American students of the Notre Dame School of Architecture. Before we move on to tell about the Americans in Brandenvoort, I'd like to tell about something exciting. I'm working on a new website that will have all my videos, interesting projects and much more, all under one roof. For this purpose, I use Squarespace, the sponsor of today's video. Squarespace makes it super easy to create a completely personalized website using their new guided design system called Squarespace Blueprint. For example, I could choose between a professionally curated layout or build a site from scratch. Squarespace also allows you to make and sell courses, has built-in analytics and powerful flexible payment tools. And it's all super easy to use. Check out squarespace.com for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com slash TheAestheticCity to save 10% on your first purchase of a website or domain. And now let's get back to it. The ministry wanted Brandenvoort to create local jobs, so a number of local architects were hired. But not all firms built with the same quality that was liked by the inhabitants, leading to some criticism. To fix this, Rob Krier decided to call in help from overseas. He contacted the University of Notre Dame School of Architecture to ask Ettore Mazzola, an Italian professor leading the Rome program, if they could develop a plan with architecture as it should have been done. Mazzola accepted the invitation and brought his students to Brandenvoort and the surrounding area. In just a couple of weeks, they documented local architecture and created a sort of pattern book of the region of Brabant. They also pointed to problems with the existing buildings. Instead of being ignored, the new ideas and criticism were embraced and the team was given two lots to design, number 18 and 22. Once their designs were done, the result was so successful that they were actually used for plot 18 and their findings were also used to inform the design of other future blocks. The end result is a beautiful picturesque town with nice squares and meandering streets. In the middle of the main square stands a classical market hall, which might be the crown jewel of the town. Children safely use their bikes and play freely. Little shops line the central square. It's all very peaceful and quiet. It's just a pleasant place to live and that's exactly what it was designed for. Brandenvoort even has a train station. Overall, the plan has been a huge success. The homes sold easily and by now it is almost finished. So, on what principles was this plan based? Traditional urban design. First of all, the town makes use of the unbeaten formula of blocks, streets and squares. After a century of trying to reinvent the wheel, often with disastrous results, we seem to rediscover how well this recipe works. The design of Brandenvoort is very human friendly. It is very safe for cyclists, pedestrians and children. Although cars can get to most places, they cannot go everywhere and always share the street with cyclists. The streets are designed to discourage speeding and parking is moved to the back of the houses, inside of the blocks, keeping the streets free of parked cars. Adaptation to the context. Brandenvoort truly belongs in the Brabant landscape. The architecture fits the local culture, the local climate and builds on the same principles and shared history. It continues the story of the location, instead of trying to deny it. And finally, affordability. Brandenvoort is not just a town for the rich. The first phase of Brandenvoort consists of 22% social housing. They were built with the same quality and beauty and mixed through the others. And remember that this is quite rare. We don't see this in many places. As is often the case, there is criticism. And because Brandenvoort was so different, it was an easy target. The first point of criticism is, why would you design a city like a 17th century fortified town? Well, there is a very simple answer. Because traditional urban fabric is still the only type of urban fabric we know will predictably lead to pleasant, successful places. We have tried the tower in the park concept. It failed. We have tried car suburbs. They failed. Today, we need places that are dense, walkable and can be adjusted to future uses. And traditional urban fabric still does this the best way. And to be honest, I don't expect we'll find other recipes for cities as successful as this anytime soon. Bringing us to point of criticism too. Isn't this town just a form of nostalgia? To answer this, let me quote a nice piece of wisdom. Tradition is about preserving the fire, not about worshipping the ashes. I'm personally not interested in nostalgia at all. And I'm convinced the architects weren't either. They just saw, hey, this works. People like this and it fits the location. It's the best idea out there. So, let's do it. Building traditions are technologies given to us by previous generations that worked really well. So, instead of ignoring them, why not use them for our benefit? Then, criticism point three. How is this type of town compatible with a country or people who wants to be progressive? Isn't it reactionary to build like this? Well, I would say, get your definition of progress right. Progress, in my point of view, doesn't just mean embracing whatever is different or new. I believe progress always serves a certain purpose, the improvement of the human condition. So, this means making people happier, healthier, more prosperous and thriving. And not just chasing change or whatever is novel. So, if this town is a success and does make people happy and lets them thrive, isn't this the most progressive thing we could do? Or must progress always look like glass blocks? I'll let you decide Brandenburg isn't perfect, of course. One of the biggest problems, perhaps, is that while it looks like a small city, it doesn't really function like one. Because traffic is diverted around the center, only destination traffic goes into the heart of the town, making it quiet and giving businesses a harder time surviving. Most existing cities have a reason for existing where they are, like being located on the crossing of two roads or where trade happens. But then again, do the residents of Brandenburg really care? They value the quiet of the town, while still living in a charming, walkable, safe place. Another point of critique I would bring forward is that not all the architecture is equally nicely detailed. It doesn't always look as authentic. The most authentic looking traditional architecture comes with the use of traditional construction techniques. An example is what building culture from Oklahoma is doing, by building entirely out of brick. They create buildings that have this authentic quality. Unfortunately, it is more expensive, and Brandenburg needed to offer social housing in the mix as well. I guess you can't have both, at least not at this time. With the enormous success of Brandenburg, you might expect the municipality to be smart and say hey, it works, let's do more of this. Right? Well, almost. The next phase of Brandenburg, called the Marke, was already planned out and ready to be built using the same successful principles. But the municipality of Helmond decided that instead, it would be better to choose for an untested, novel concept of a smart city, called Brainport Smart District. This would become the city of the future. Hmm, where did we hear that before? Brainport Smart District would be filled with sensors and technology. And it would look like this. Randomly placed modernist blocks in a park-like setting. At first glance, it might look futuristic. But let's be honest, is it really? The buildings you see already exist, in many Dutch towns. So they're not very original. Apparently, the future is yesterday. Maybe we need to move beyond the blocky minimalist aesthetic. And while we're at it, invent something different from the science fiction vision of what the future should look like. In the case of Brandenburg and its expansion, I don't see any reason why all the sensors and other technology couldn't have been integrated in the existing design. They wasted a lot of money and a good plan for nothing. It's painful to say, but modernist urban design tends to flop. While traditional design tends to do better and is preferred by a large part of the population. So they're taking on a lot of risk. Anyway, I wish them luck. They already had to reduce their ambitions by a lot to cut costs. If it gets built though, it will be the best natural experiment ever. We can just compare the two places in 70 years and see which one will be more successful. You can place your bets in the So, that is the story of Brandenburg. I believe this town really is a hopeful sign that we can still build amazing new places that are beautiful, but also affordable, walkable and safe for children. If you're visiting the Netherlands, I encourage you to take the trip by train and take a look. I'm happy to read what you think. If you liked this video, please like and follow our channel, or become a patron to support our work. Don't click away yet. If you're interested in this topic, you might like the next video, which is about the crazy problems created by reinforced concrete. A big thank you to our patrons and see you next time!