Zaanhof
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Over a century ago, the architects of the Amsterdam School built beautiful residential complexes for workers in the Spaarndammerbuurt of Amsterdam. Beauty, space and greenery were important starting points. Right next to Michel de Klerk's famous 'Het Schip', architect Herman Walenkamp built the Zaanhof: a beautiful, almost village-like area, where residents could relax after work in the factory or in the harbour.

Housing Act
The most important piece of regulation that influenced the poor housing situation in Amsterdam was the Housing Act of 1901. One of the regulations included in this housing act stipulated that Amsterdam had to make expansion plans to accommodate the inhabitants. For the still undeveloped part of the Spaarndammerbuurt, where the Zaanhof is now located, an expansion plan was drawn up in 1912 by the aesthetic consultant at Publieke Werken J.M. van der Meij.

The Zaanhof was designed as a straightforward street with a rectangular, closed block of houses of four floors on both sides. When this plan came before the City Council in 1913, it was heavily criticised. The then socialist councillor Floor Wibaut wanted the plan to be amended, making it possible to build houses with only two storeys instead of four-storey houses. If buildings were four floors high everywhere, there would be the same worrying density as in the overcrowded Jordaan or the Pijp. Neighborhoods like this were of such poor quality that these houses were known as human warehouses.

English examples
Wibaut referred to examples in England and noted that a number of German cities were also moving in the same direction. He explicitly mentioned as an example White Hartlane Estate in London, for which a lower-density expansion plan had been made in 1911. The design of this suburb (today known as Tower Gardens) was heavily influenced by Ebenezer Howard's garden city movement.

The outcome is the Zaanhof: an inner ring of low housing blocks with two floors and a (never completed) school, located around a playground and luscious greenery. Around the inner ring is a higher outer ring consisting of houses of three and four floors (built by order of the Protestant Patrimonium).

The influence of Zaanhof
Keppler regarded low-rise buildings as the ideal construction for workers' housing. This created a so-called 'oases of peace' for the workers. The Zaanhof plan would lay the foundation for many garden villages in Amsterdam, especially in Amsterdam East and North.