Improving living standards during the interbellum: Three case studies of Dutch garden villages

At the dawn of the twentieth century people in the Netherlands were living in poor conditions. The houses were poorly ventilated, with high humidity and little daylight. Along with the poor living conditions the first World War and Economic crisis marked the start of the century. It was that during this time in England a new housing concept arose. Ebenezer Howard came up with the concept of the garden cities. In garden cities the focus is on more peaceful living than in the cities and provides a lot of amenities. This concept was adapted in the Netherlands in several cities. But is this concept the answer to the problems of the interbellum period? The question posed in this history thesis is: ‘Are garden villages an answer to the social and economic problems of the beginning of the 20th century and, if so, how is that reflected in the design?’ In order to research this the thesis looks at three cases in the Netherlands, Vreewijk en Heijplaat in Rotterdam and Marlot in the Hague. Here we see that providing better living conditions, more amenities and teaching people how to live properly, invluences society in a positive way. Because of this it can be concluded that garden villages provide some answers to the problems of the interbellumAR2A011Architecture, Urbanism and Building Science