Atlas van de Verandering, Nederland herschikt

Atlas of change

Theo Baart

Projects | Books

Atlas of change

Rearranging the Netherlands

2000 | The Netherlands has been changing at a rapid pace. We are constantly adding new places with new functions to the old familiar assortment of residential neighbourhoods, city parks, farms and pastures. Changes in our economy, income level, leisure activities and population profile are reflected in the landscape.

The Atlas of Change, Rearranging the Netherlands takes a tour d’horizon through the transformations that the country has been undergoing since post-war reconstruction. The Netherlands has been, and continues to be, arranged. Journalist Tracy Metz interviewed policy makers on this topic, and urban planner Tsjerk Ruimschotel contributed an essay on the topography of daily life.

Theo Baart read policy documents and newspaper articles on spatial planning and selected sixty concepts that signify the changes in the use of space in the Netherlands. With these concepts in mind, he photographed the so-called new landscape, arranging the sections of photographic essay alphabetically. This essay is about the Dutch language and how we like to address developments using beautiful descriptions. At times, the discrepancy between these descriptions and the photographed banality becomes obvious.