Theo Baart
Commissioned work

Building site Enschede

A city re-creates itself

2007 | Enschede - with 150,000 inhabitants the largest city in the Eastern Netherlands and the tenth in the Netherlands - falls into the category 'unknown makes unloved'. In the most unexpected places in the city there are pearls of construction coast and urban landscapes.

This book appeared on the eve of the fall of the Lehman Brothers bank that resulted in a lengthy financial crisis. At that time, Enschede was a major construction site. The city managed very well to say goodbye to the sad veil of a poor industrial city. The way up was found again. A lot was planned and beautiful projects had already been realized in a very short period.

This book shows the urban and landscape qualities of Enschede in more than forty photos. Urban city builder Ton Schaap places the then-formulated building tasks in a broad context and explains ten projects that should permanently change Enschede. The protracted financial crises after 2007 meant that many of these plans were not, or only partially, realized.

Text Ton Schaap

Photography Theo Baart

Design Axis Media designers

Publisher NAi Publishers


English edition

Dutch edition

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Commissioned work

Achterland-Voorland

The Frisian landscape