‘The Seven Provinces’ housing development

The Department of Urban Planning had been working on expansion plans for Overschie since 1943. The traditional urban design of the 1930s was abandoned, certainly after Lotte Stam-Beese became head designer in 1946. Building blocks of mostly three floors were initially considered. Influenced by her more modern ideas and the use of system building methods, the open rows were arranged beside shared gardens and taller residential blocks were added for variety. Building good and cheap homes in high-rise structures had been a wish among many architects for a long time, but most of the projects completed up to that point had been for the middle classes. On this occasion, however, the designers from the city’s Department of Housing, Jan Denijs and Bart Linssen, succeeded in building high-rise for the lowest income groups. The press dubbed the buildings ‘residential skyscrapers’. Some years later, the same architects built comparable blocks of flats in Bospolder-Tussendijken.

Each of the seven identical buildings consisted of nine residential floors and contained a total of 108 homes: 99 three-room and 9-two room homes. The three-room units contained a shower and washbasin; the two-room homes, intended for seniors, had a combined shower with toilet, fitted with an enamel bath. The homes had a loggia on the west facade with a storage unit and coal bin; galleries lined the east facades. Each building was accessed from a shared hall. There were two lifts and a main and an emergency staircase. The plinth contained 7 garages, 118 storage units and space for a water pump installation that regulated pressure in the water pipes. Each building had a caretaker. The buildings were surrounded by a public garden. Entrance halls were adorned with a mosaic floor designed by the artist Luigi Di Lerma. Another striking element was the tiled supporting pillar beside the staircase. One building featured a mural beside the lifts.

Reliefs, probably by Louis van Roode, adorned the staircases of the ‘Stadt en Lande’ building. The staircase of the Hollandt building featured sculptures. According to one newspaper report, great attention was paid to the finishes: “An aesthetic effect was achieved by using yellow-coloured mortar between the joints.”

The first residential building was completed in April 1954 and the first nine residents moved into their homes in the ‘Utrecht’ building. Shortly before this, De Klerk furniture store had fitted out a model room. The construction costs for the project totalled around 11 million guilders (€ 5 million). Weekly rent cost an average of 12.60 guilders (€5.72) made up of 8.85 basic rent and 1.30 for installations such as lifts, home telephone and suchlike, 2.45 for water consumption, and service costs. Garages cost 5.75 a week to rent.

Around Construction Day in 1956, housing construction specialists from all over the country were shown around the completed complex. Alderman Meertens unveiled a memorial plaque on the facade of the ‘Hollandt’ building with the emblems of the seven provinces after which the buildings were named. This plaque has since disappeared.

Various suggestions for the names were put forward. The names of seven rivers, seven members of the royal family, seven architects, but the municipal executive rejected all proposals. In the end, the committee for naming streets came up with the idea for the seven provinces. Two of the seven buildings have been demolished, and a mural inspired by the name of the province was added to the hall of the remaining five during renovation work in 2005.

Queen Elizabeth visited the Netherlands on 27 March 1958. She accompanied Queen Juliana and princesses Beatrix and Irene on a visit to a new home in one of the province buildings in Overschie. These homes were evidently seen as representative of the post-war period, but it was no coincidence that they were conveniently located along the route between the Hydrological Laboratory in Delft and the city centre. Queen Elizabeth said that she thought the home was very nice, though a little small.

While the seven blocks of flats had not been built using a new industrial system building method with all the accompanying teething problems, some technical issues did arise. Cost restrictions meant that no central heating system was installed, so each flat had one coal burner located in the living room, close to the south-west facade. The chimney could not be built of masonry, so it was made of concrete components. The flues turned out to have poor air flows. A technical study was carried out and rotating caps placed on top of the chimneys, but the problems continued. This was the reason why a group of residents joined together to lend more weight to their complaints and to found a tenant association. Some 552 family heads (of the 756)became members, for a monthly contribution of 1.5 guilders. The association issued its own community bulletin. When the technical problems had been solved, the association continued to organize activities such as Sinterklaas parties, children’s processions on Queen’s Day, bus and boat trips, a babysitting service and improvements to the surroundings with benches, bins and playgrounds.

In 1989, the municipality wanted to demolish three of the four southern blocks and replace them with commercial developments and owner-occupied homes. Set up in 1984, the Overschie Residents Organization (known somewhat militantly by its anagram BOOS, which is Dutch for ‘angry’), succeeded in preventing the demolition and the flats were renovated by the architecture firm Bouwprogram. The roofs and facades were insulated, new windows were fitted, the loggias were closed off and the galleries, staircases, lifts and entrances were revamped. The flats now have central heating, a new kitchen and a new toilet and shower.

The three northern blocks were tackled first, followed by the four southern blocks. Two blocks were demolished: Stadt en Lande and Over-IJssel. The renovation has drastically altered the appearance of the blocks, with exterior insulation and plastic window frames, and the original appearance has almost totally vanished.