Bouwlust, the urbanization of a polder

Building desire

Theo Baart

Projects | Books

Bouwlust

The urbanization of a polder

1999 | The Dutch countryside is under great pressure from increasing urbanization. Bouwlust depicts the transformation of Haarlemmermeer - a striking example of urban development - from an agricultural to a suburban area.

Urbanization of the polder began in the seventies of the last century. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, which had been isolated, expanded and joined to Hoofddorp; the polder's main village. Large new housing developments were grafted onto the village and the number of inhabitants increased ten-fold. A new landscape developed. The centre of this village was the scene of a struggle between the old and the new. The old lost.

Now that it is almost completely disengaged from its past, the 'new town' is interchangeable with many other residential developments in the Netherlands.

Theo Baart grew up in this area (1960-1977) and since 1977 until 1999 he photographed the process of transformation. He is not prompted by nostalgia, but by amazement at the way in which progress manifest itself.

Bouwlust was presented at the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam (1999), later on that year in Erasmus House, Djakarta, in 2000 in the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto as part of Still / Moving, Contemporary Photography, Film and Video from The Netherlands. Bouwlust was part of the opening exhibition in FOAM Amsterdam in 2002 and part of Nature as Artifice in the Kröller-Müller Museum in 2008.

The sequel to Bouwlust is Lust for work (2015).

Go to Werklust here

Photography, text & composition Theo Baart

Text contributionsWarna Oosterbaan, Tracy Metz & Nöel van Doorn

PoetryWillem van Toorn

DesignTypography & Other Serious Matters

240 * 280 mm | 246 pages circulation 2,000

Publisher Ideas On Paper in collaboration with NAi Publishers, Amsterdam 1999

Bouwlust is made possible by financial support from the Creative Industries Fund NL, Mondriaan Fund, Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, the municipality of Haarlemmermeer and the province of Noord-Holland.

Photos from Bouwlust, The Urbanization of a Polder are in the collections of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and the Municipal Museum The Hague. All prints used for printing Bouwlust were purchased by the Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam. The book can be viewed entirely online on the website of this museum.

The book Bouwlust was awarded the Foto Kees Scherer Prize in 2000 for the best Dutch photo book in the period 1999-2000.

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