De Gave Stad

Zoetermeer has sometimes been called the largest open-air museum of urban planning and architecture in the Netherlands. The project De Gave Stad has brought the extraordinary development history of Zoetermeer to the attention of a wide audience.

Origins of Zoetermeer

From a small village of about 7,000 inhabitants in the mid-1960s, Zoetermeer grew in a few decades into a full-fledged city of more than 100,000 inhabitants. This explosive growth also reveals an interesting and cool sampling of urban planning and architecture.

In a series of Cultuurhistorische Verkenningen, the genesis of urban planning and architecture in Zoetermeer has been visualized for each neighborhood. Described in chronological order are the Dorp, Palenstein, Driemanspolder, Meerzicht, Buytenwegh De Leyens, Seghwaert, Stadscentrum, Rokkeveen, Noordhove and the industrial estates. In the photo book 'De Gave Stad. Zoetermeer 40 years of guts and ambition in architecture', the Cultural Historic Explorations are summarized. This book also includes Zoetermeer's last neighborhood, Oosterheem.

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