Future of the Past in Watergraafsmeer

Take a guided walk through the future of that time in Watergraafsmeer.

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Accompanied by a guide, you will walk through the Frankendael garden village and the Middenmeer neighborhood. These parts of Watergraafsmeer are part of Cornelis van Eesteren and Jakoba Mulder's design for the 1935 Amsterdam General Expansion Plan (AUP). How did the characteristic Frankendael - also known as Jerusalem - come about, and how did the later Middenmeer expansion take shape?

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The walk takes you to several courts in both neighborhoods. In the garden village of Frankendael, it shows how successful experiments have been carried out with green courts here, and later also in the Middenmeer neighborhood. This new set-up was a response to the division of strips, such as in the previously realized Bos en Lommer.

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The guide tells about the urban planners Van Eesteren and Mulder involved and shows the work of renowned architects such as Merkelbach, Stam, Van Eyck, Zanstra and Schaik, and landscape architects Mien Ruys and Hans Warnau. The result of their cooperation turned out to be very successful: Jerusalem was the first post-war neighborhood in the Netherlands to gain the status of a national monument.

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Be amazed at the amount of greenery that is an important part of this overall design, 'the pleasure garden for the workers', according to Van Eesteren.

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More walking through the future of the past? See our walks through other areas of the AUP.

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Practical information

time 13:30 - 15:00.

Accessibility Watch here the accessibility of the Van Eesteren Museum.

Language of communication Dutch

Location The walk starts and ends at the school playground on Pieter Zeemanlaan/Ostwaldstraat.

‍Tickets can only be purchased in advance via the website.