OverHolland

Articles

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  Guilt-ridden tableaus

  Dilemmas in the care of cultural heritage

  Bernard Colenbrander

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  This article examines contemporary dilemmas in the care and interpretation of cultural heritage through the lens of “guilty” or contested historical artefacts. Using literary analysis, architectural theory, and recent public debates, it explores how cultural objects and sites become morally charged when their origins or historical associations conflict with present-day values. The discussion opens with Andrew O’Hagan’s novel Caledonian Road, in which an art historian publicly dismantles the authority of the British...

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  Interview about the Architecture, Urban Planning, Landscape Research Agenda of the National Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE)

  With Jaap Evert Abrahamse, Eva Röell en Gabri van Tussenbroek

  Bernard Colenbrander, Reinout Rutte

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  This article presents an in-depth interview with Jaap Evert Abrahamse, Eva Röell, and Gabri van Tussenbroek on the development of the Architecture, Urban Planning, Landscape Research Agenda of the Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE). Conducted in early 2025, the conversation explores the motivations, structure, and intended impact of this agenda, which forms part of a broader national knowledge strategy. Central to the discussion is the conviction that research and knowledge are the foundation of effective...

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  Bouwkunde in Delft: a chronology 1842–2000

  Aart Oxenaar, Jesse Verdoes

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  This article examines the historical development and intellectual profile of architectural education in Delft, with particular attention to the shifting relationship between architecture, engineering, history, and design. Focusing on the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment at Delft University of Technology, it traces how architectural education evolved from a technically oriented discipline into a complex field in which design, historical knowledge, theory, and societal engagement are increasingly intertwined.

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  A transnational view on the origins of the Delft School

  Some notes on Bouwkunde in Delft: a chronology 1842–2000

  Henk Engel

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  This article critically reassesses the historiography of architectural education at Delft University of Technology by adopting a transnational perspective on the origins of what later became known as the “Delft School.” Departing from the commonly repeated narrative that modernism only gained a foothold in Delft after the Second World War, the author argues that modernist ideas were already deeply embedded in the intellectual, social, and educational culture of the institution from its earliest phases. Through a close reading of

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  Mapping Randstad Holland revisited

  Yvonne van Mil, Reinout Rutte

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  This article revisits the Atlas Randstad Holland, first published in OverHolland in 2005, by extending its cartographic and analytical framework with a new reference year: 2020. Building on a long-term mapping project that visualises 170 years of spatial development in the western Netherlands, the authors add a new layer representing the period 2000–2020 to the composite map of the Randstad. Using updated digital datasets, GIS techniques and recent landscape classifications,...

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  Rotterdam inner city in detail

  The emergence of high-rise buildings in five maps (1940–2030)

  Iris van der Wal, Esther Gramsbergen, Yağız Söylev, Elif Soylu

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  This article analyses the emergence of Rotterdam as the Netherlands’ foremost high-rise city by examining the development of high-rise buildings in the city centre between 1940 and 2030. Using an atlas-based methodology, the authors present five map series corresponding to distinct periods of urban transformation: 1940–1970, 1970–1985, 1985–2000, 2000–2015 and 2015–2030. Buildings taller than 70 metres—the municipal definition of high-rise—are visualised in three dimensions, allowing shifts in spatial distribution, function and scale to be studied over...

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  The Palazzo

  Rediscovery of a housing type

  Hans van der Heijden

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  This article re-examines the palazzo as a residential building type and argues for its renewed relevance in contemporary housing design and architectural education. Rather than approaching the palazzo as a historical or stylistic artefact of the Italian Renaissance, the author frames it as a typological principle rooted in spatial organisation, repetition and urban context. Central to this redefinition is the palazzo’s centripetal structure: a multi-storey urban building organised around a courtyard that functions simultaneously as circulation space and...