After the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich in May 1945, Germany no longer existed as a sovereign, independent nation. It was occupied by the four Allied powers: France, Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union. When it came to the postwar European recovery, the biggest obstacle was that the economy in Germany, the dominant continental economic power before the Second World War, was at an almost complete standstill. This not only had severe consequences for Germany itself, but also had strong economic repercussions for surrounding countries, especially the Netherlands. As Germany had been the former’s most important trading partner since the middle of the nineteenth century, it was clear that the Netherlands would be unable to recover economically without a healthy Germany. However, Allied policy, especially that of the British and the Americans, made this impossible for years. This article therefore focuses on the early postwar Dutch-German trade relations and the consequences of Allied policy. While much has been written about the occupation of Germany, far less attention has been paid to the results of this policy on neighbouring countries. Moreover, the main claim of this article is that it was not Marshall Aid which was responsible for the quick and remarkable Dutch economic growth as of 1949, but the opening of the German market for Dutch exports that same year. https://doi.org/10.1515/jbwg-2018-0009 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martijn-lak-71793013/
MULTIFILE
„Der Druck auf die alliierten und deutschen Autoritäten, den Transfer von Kapitalerträgen aus Deutschland zu erlauben, darf den Versuchen, die Exporte nach Deutschland zu erhöhen, definitiv nicht untergeordnet werden“, schrieb der niederländische Ökonom P. J. van den Burg in der ökonomischen Wochenzeitschrift Economisch-Statistische Berichten Anfang 1949.1 Seine Beobachtung war nur zu verständlich: In der niederländischen Politik gegenüber Deutschland bestand eine deutliche Ambivalenz zwischen Versuchen, Vorkriegsvermögen zurückzuerhalten, und den Versuchen, niederländisch-deutsche Handels- und Wirtschaftsbeziehungen wiederherzustellen. In den Niederlanden war dieser Dualismus besonders akut, weil Deutschland, seit dem späten 19.Jahrhundert die dominante Wirtschaftsmacht Kontinentaleuropas, seit etwa 1850 der wichtigste Handelspartner der Niederlande gewesen war.2 Zudem hatten niederländische Unternehmen, Banken und Privatpersonen in der ersten Dekade nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg in Deutschland im Allgemeinen und im Ruhrgebiet im Besonderen große Investitionen getätigt. Jedoch verloren niederländische Eigentümer und Firmen 1931, als die Konvertibilität der Reichsmark aufgegeben wurde, die Kontrolle über ihre Besitzungen und Investitionen im Dritten Reich. Die deutsche Besetzung der Niederlande zwischen 1940 und 1945 verschlimmerte diesen Zustand noch. https://doi.org/10.1515/hzhz-2018-0035 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martijn-lak-71793013/
MULTIFILE
In the Netherlands, almost everyone has an image of 1930s neighborhoods, post-war neighborhoods, and Vinex locations. That is very different for the neighborhoods with social housing apartments from the 1970s and 1980s. They are forgotten, hardly known, even professionally. And that is a problem because a wave of restructuring and densification projects is imminent for these areas. They are related to the post-war neighborhoods, but also have fundamentally different spatial characteristics. Moreover, within the fragmented practice of spatial development, there is little shared knowledge on plans in other municipalities or housing associations. Even less is known whether these neighborhoods offer space for tackling the persistent housing shortage and solving other major social challenges, such as energy, biodiversity, circularity and inclusion. It is time for an inventory, and this project undertakes the challenge.In the planning for these residential areas, municipalities, developers and housing corporations set the framework, but it is the urban development and architecture firms that have to translate this into concrete design solutions. We focus on these SMEs. With this research project, we map out the ambitions, challenges and opportunities of the restructuring of these residential areas in three steps: What type of plans and ambitions are there for these residential areas? To this end, we investigate cases by means of policy analyses of the environmental visions and area visions. What characterizes the spatial-social structure of these neighborhoods? To this end, we make a comparative spatial-social analysis of several cases, also in relation to pre-war and early post-war ones. What opportunities and challenges does their restructuring offer? To this end, we use the acquired insights to explore strategies in co-creation sessions with external partners. In this presentation, we will share some of the outputs of this process.
MULTIFILE
Martien Visser maakt zich best zorgen over het Nationaal Plan Energie (NPE), dat deze zomer verschijnt. Het expertteam (ETES) keek volgens hem niet veel verder dan Nederland en dat geldt evenzo voor de netbeheerders in hun II3050 rapport. “Terwijl er juist meer dan ooit noodzaak de energiemarkt op tenminste de Noordwest-Europese schaal te beschouwen om de nationale plannen daar vervolgens op af te stemmen.”
LINK
Het is de hoogste tijd dat Nederland, België en Duitsland gezamenlijk in actie komen voor hun ARRRA-regio. “Dat ze de klimaatambities voor de industrie in lijn brengen met de beschikbaarheid van schone energie en bijbehorende infrastructuur tegen redelijke kosten. Niet alleen in het eindplaatje, maar juist ook tijdens de tussenperiode. Opdat de ARRRA-industrie de kans krijgt haar innovatiekracht te benutten en klimaatvriendelijke productiemethoden te ontwikkelen. Zo niet, dan is veel van de industrie in de ARRRA regio gedoemd te verdwijnen naar elders. Met alle gevolgen van dien.”
LINK
The current multiple crisis require architects, designers, citymakers and stakeholders to re-think their approach to the city and territory, under the urge for a sustainable and inclusive future. While uncertainty and technocracy dominate, they also enable a open investigation and understanding of different future scenarios of spatial transformation. A revision of the term ‘adaptability’ promises to contribute to a new holistic approach.This paper presents the outputs of our current research project on adaptability at architectonic and urban level. It departs from the spatial disciplinary literature, and a large database of projects where this term plays a role implicitly or explicitly. We revisit theories and reposition them in the current unstable context. With this, we can enlarge the range of interactions and scales to approach simultaneously. Based on this, we propose new variables, and vocabularies in a framework for urban development beyond traditional confines.In fact, a new framework for the design of architectonic and urban space is articulated. It responds to different transformations of users’, usages’ and environmental conditions based on dimensions (scale, time, space), domains (social, economic, ecologic, climatic), adaptability ingredients (modularity, flexibility, interactivity, etc.), and resources (design by research, extreme scenario-thinking). We show them in action thought design projects conducted with students in the Netherlands and Belgium.We aim at generating holistic insights on the concept and methods of adaptability through some of the research and educational outcomes. Ultimately, we want to expand the mechanism of planning for an adaptive approach -from the building to the network, making lines of research, education and practice collide to address urgently needed changes.
MULTIFILE
How and where can Dutch design entrepreneurs find work in Germany? This was the question DutchDFA put to the research team at Inholland University of Applied Sciences in February 2010. But the researchers took a different angle, and generated unexpected data, revealing patterns, and valuable new insights into practicing design and architecture abroad.
DOCUMENT
This research focuses on exit choices within SMEs. In this study, “exit choice” refers to the decision to opt for either liquidation or sale of the firm. The predictions focus on human-capital and firm-resource variables. The hypotheses are tested on a set of 158 owners of small firms, the majority of which are micro-firms with 0–9 employees. The results of a series of binominal logistic regression analyses show that firm-resource characteristics (previous sales turnover, the firm’s independence from its owner, and firm size), together with one aspect of the owner’s specific human capital (the owner’s acquisition experience), predict exit choice. The conclusions have been made with caution, as the dataset is relatively small and the number of predictors is limited.
LINK
LINK
This book is the account of teaching practice linked to research projects, a practice that is able to create new, unexpected values in the complex patchwork of the city through experimental and strategic interventions with greenery. That the interventions involve greenery is obviously linked to the fact that the Van Hall Larenstein university of applied sciences specializes in nature and agriculture, but there is also a practical reason. Green spaces act as a cohesive force, as is shown again and again in the Netherlands and in the Lively Cities programme. Particularly in the urban context, green spaces have a distinctive and perhaps even emotional value that encourages people to pause there and makes them think about their appreciation of a place. Greenery triggers people to take part in social experiments. But that is just the beginning.
DOCUMENT
