(Editor’s note: We’re dedicating this installment of the Eindhoven Business Briefing to housing, which is incredibly short supply in the Netherlands as a whole. See an earlier post here about Meerhoven, Eindhoven’s main expat neighborhood. We’ll have a bonus EBB on Thursday.)
In a country that gave you the canal houses of Amsterdam, the cube houses of Rotterdam/Helmond and fantastic bike infrastructure, somehow you’d expect more from the architecture of its suburbs. Although most foreigners might think that the Netherlands is full of houses in the style of Amsterdam, that’s not the case.
Dutch architecture is a mixed bag. The majority of all housing is row houses, but not the cute, cozy houses of Amsterdam. These narrow, joined houses are shorter with predictable architecture, and — as I discovered quickly while house hunting — most have the same basic layout.
In cities, packed with existing structures, you don’t often have the opportunity to build an entire area from scratch, but indulge me ….
Imagine a blank tract of land in the Netherlands. It’s flat farmland and already zoned for the construction of suburban housing.
Now here’s my question: What would you build if you had this blank slate and all options were on the table?
Not too long ago, the cities of Eindhoven and Helmond had this exact situation and they built very different suburbs.
In the early 1990s, a memorandum was passed by the Dutch government that designated large areas outside Dutch cities for huge new housing developments. These neighborhoods were called Vinex locations (yes, that was a new word to me too) and they popped up all around the Netherlands.
And just like that, the suburbs of Meerhoven and Brandevoort were born.
With all the choices in the world and this blank slate, let’s dive into what the planners and architects chose.
Meerhoven
I’ll start with Meerhoven, which is the newest section of Eindhoven, set just south of the airport and on the western edge of Eindhoven. It wasn’t until two years of living in Eindhoven that I finally made it to Meerhoven where a friend had recently bought a house. After biking 25 minutes from the city center, I was met by boxy houses devoid of soul
No joke, this was my first impression and it remains to this day, despite visiting every few months for years.
Huge sections of row houses line the streets and the style of houses changes a bit from block to block. I would like to believe that the architects did try to do something “different” and were going for a modern design, but it turned out a bit blah.
I think this is how many people would describe most of these Vinex locations around the country.
However, I was assured by people who had moved to Meerhoven that it was “very family friendly.” At that stage in my life, this was not what I was looking for, and even now that I have a young family, it’s still not what I’m looking for. At least, not how most people mean this phrase.
Coming from the U.S., a family-friendly suburb means that you drive everywhere, own a minivan and have a cookie-cutter house and well, I guess this is not so different from Meerhoven (minus the minivan).
While you can get to the airport quickly, if you want to get to the city center of Eindhoven, your options are the following: a 25-minute bike ride, a 19-minute bus ride or a 20-minute car ride.
It’s no wonder that I heard this from a former Meerhoven resident:
“I thought I’d be in Eindhoven center all the time, but I wasn’t. It was just too far, especially with Dutch weather.”
I’d show you some of my pictures of Meerhoven, but I don’t have any. I never found it special enough to take any. However, you can quickly see what it’s like by clicking on this link to an image search.
Brandevoort
With construction started around 1997, Brandevoort was built around a central area east of Eindhoven’s centrum called De Veste. It was built in the style of a fortress, like the oldest cities in the Netherlands, and fans out from there. Brandevoort doesn’t do anything wildly different or revolutionary from old Dutch cities, but I guess that’s what is special. The architects designed old stuff, but it’s new. They stuck to Dutch building tradition.
And guess what? It turned out pretty darn cute.
The houses were all designed a bit different, yet cohesive. It has a feeling of a rural Amsterdam, though not as tall. The planners even included some small, which furthers the traditional feel.
I enjoy walking around this suburb and marveling that all of these old-looking buildings are so modern and also built with sustainability in mind. It’s a bit mind-trippy.
Although zoning of what you can and cannot do with your house is pretty strict, it’s just too bad that the city planners didn’t have the power to get rid of the ridiculously huge powerlines that cross just south of the central area.
Is one suburb better than the other?
So Brandevoort is good and Meerhoven is bad? Actually, no. After all, a place is what you make of it.
In a way, these suburbs are very similar, despite the wildly different architecture. They both incorporate nature areas within the living space. Meerhoven has a nice nature and walking area called Park Meerland, which won the Dirk Roosenburg prize in 2011. Brandevoort has similar nature surrounding its central area.
In addition to schools, community centers and plenty of playgrounds, in each suburb, the planners built a commercial area so residents don’t have to go far for their basic necessities. You get a tiny HEMA (a small Dutch department store), a Kruidvat (drug store), various grocery stores and a few other stores.
But good luck if you want a few nice restaurants. Finding a lunch or dinner option is limited at best and finding nightlife is a zero percent chance.
Sorry, I guess, family-friendly suburbs aren’t allowed to let parents have any fun nearby.
And speaking of proximity, Brandevoort does beat Meerhoven in many respects. This is mainly because it has a train station and is not reliant on bus transport. Yes, it’s a local line, but in 6 minutes, you jump off at the central Eindhoven train station and can hop on another train to any other major city.
If you look at the data in the graphic above, arguably these are both suburbs of Eindhoven. Some many strike me mute by saying those words, but if you look at how quickly you can be in Eindhoven from Brandevoort, it’s a valid argument.
Although not my cup of tea, I’m glad to report that both suburbs are high-demand areas to live in. People are always vying for a house in Brandevoort and Meerhoven has tons of expat life and neighborhood celebrations, especially with its proximity to ASML in Veldhoven.
If I had to choose, I’d pick Brandevoort hands down given, in my opinion, its architectural superiority and connectivity.
But there’s still something missing.
I’ve always preferred Brandevoort, but it does feel like a movie set. Maybe that’s because it is still so new. While visiting on a weekday afternoon, it felt a bit too quiet, although it could have been because kids were off school that day. There was hardly anyone walking around, yet during its annual Dickensnight festival, it is packed and full of atmosphere. It feels like what it should be all the time.
A visiting American recently commented and said, “Brandevoort feels like something out of ‘The Stepford Wives.’ ”
I know what she meant. Brandevoort does feel a bit too perfect and a bit too squeaky clean.
If you walk through other neighborhoods of Eindhoven, you’ll find more life. They won’t be squeaky clean or new. There will be litter on the street and odd front yard ornaments, but they feel lived in. This is my hope for Brandevoort (and Meerhoven). I hope that when these suburbs are as old as other neighborhoods, they will age into more lively, more commercial and more charmingly-flawed areas.
After all, Brandevoort is something special. Its architects tried to do something different and they got it almost right. But their mistake is that they tried to make it perfect and as I tell my young child, “Perfect is boring.”
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See more about Eindhoven here in Dispatches’ archives.
Lane Henry is an accidental long-term expat. She is an American who came to the Netherlands for two years—or so she thought. She has now lived in the Netherlands and explored Europe for over a decade.
