Abstract : Reality(Lelystad)Marcel Moonen (2016) www.marcelmoonen.com

I grew up in Lelystad, a so called new-town in the Netherlands.

Lelystad has a negative connotation in the Netherlands. It is not particulary beautiful for the majority of people.It has a short history, most of it is build in the 1960s – 70s.

Outside the Netherlands, only a few people know Lelystad.

So I always say: It is close to Amsterdam, well 40min by train from Amsterdam.

Republic of the Seven United Netherlands - 1658

On this map you see the state of the Netherlands in 1658.At that time it was named: the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands

It was divided in seven regions.Those seven regions had their own capital towns and major, and worked almost antonomous from eachother. I will zoom in to the central area: An enclosed sea, The Zuiderzee (The southern sea) and make a timejump.

1932 - Ijselmeer 1957 - Ijselmeer, Polder construction

300 Years later we arrive in 1932

The engineer Cornelis Lely had the visionary idea to close this central area, to decrease the chance of flooding, and construct new land in the period between 1927 and 1932. The Afsluitdijk (a dike to enclose the Southern Sea) was constructed.

This was the first part of polder-creation, salt water converted in sweet water. A second part of development started in 1957. Two new polderlands were created: the Noordoostpolder, on the top, and the Flevopolder. The third polder (location: Markermeer) was never formed. Together they would form a new province: Flevoland.

1950 - Parcel P

The first settlements of a new land began to appearIt was a small island in the middle of the lake: Parcel P

Stretching 1 km, and at a certain point it was 50 till 100 m in width.

1950 - Parcel P

On Parcel P they build temporary houses for the workers, the administrative people and a harbour.

On both sides they began to draw a line through the water, the start of a dike which eventually formed a closed ring.

1950 – Pumping station Wortman and ringdike

Three pompstations were build along the ringdike

1956 – Ringdike completed

In november 1956 the ringdike had completed a full round.

June 1957 – Polder proces finished

And when the ringdike was completed , the pumpstations started a process of inpoldering. Moving water from one side to the other.Half a year later, in june 1957, al the water was moved out of the enclosed ring.

1957 – The first sign of Lelystad

Flevoland was born: with its capital city named after the engineer Cornelis Lely. Lelystad (stad=city in Dutch)3 meter under NAP (Normaal Amsterdams Peil or Amsterdam Ordnance Datum) - 3 meter (9,8 feet) under average sea level

1965 – Sign for a shopping center

After the creation a long pauze occured. The process of creating land was quite expensive. That means no money to build infrastructure, and definitely not for the complete layout of a town.

After a period of nothing, they finally could start to build something. Signs started to appear in a nomandsland, as this one a sign for the shopping centre. So potential new inhabitants could imagine where things would come. An amazing act of imagination, compared to the animations and renders which are used nowadays to construct interest.

Over a long period (1967 – 1980) they developed the first settlements.

Highway Amsterdam – Lelystad (1967)

The first real connection to the mainland, in the shape of a highway to Amsterdam, appeared 10 years later after completion of the land.

1966 – Lelycentre under construction

Also the first center was build in the 1970s. (Two other centers would follow in the next 30 years)

1967 – Lelycentre 1959 – 1974 Constant New Babylon

Kind of futuristic, planes hovering above the landscape.It recalls drawings and visions of Constant Nieuwenhuys- New Babylon.

1967 - Housing

Around the same time the first neighbourhouds started to appear,

with names related to water and ships.

1977 – Housing

10 years later the work was still not done. The architectural tendencies changed a bit – This particular image of a now demolished neighboorhoud recalls me the cinematographie of Jaques Tati: Playtime

No borders, it is a continues landscap of green, parkingspaces, private gardens, playground. There were no physical borders, only subtitle change of texture, of roughness made you notice, and feel a difference of environment. Everything is plain surface.

Marcel Moonen – I am a moment

1970- Restaurant Lelystad

The first restaurants looked like this.

1970- Clubhouse Lelystad

The junior schools - the middle schools - the neighboorhoud houses

all looked sort of like this.

1970- Highschool Lelystad

The highschools are in the same language, only bigger.

1970- Pop-up theater Lelystad

The first theatre looked like this.

Notice the decor, there is a posters with people {matter acts as surface} and a domestic plant in the middle.

“We build something definitive now”80s local newspaper

There was an obsession with the definitive, one ought to create a final act.

As this title from a 80s newspaper stated: We build something definitive nowBut with every change,of generation, of timeframe, of leadership, It also means a change of ideas.An opposition to what was already there.

2005 - Destruction of a swimming pool

This attitude leaded to a culture of build, deconstruct, and reconsider. Which is lasting until now.As a citizen stated: “In this town we build everthing for a short time, even the trees cannot become too old.”

Value system 2:{Mutation}

Value system 1: {Pyramid}

Abstract : RealityValue system 1: {Pyramid}

Value system 1 works in a case of a collective understanding of what is valuable or not. The church, the townhall, the libray, the station and main infrastructure are at the top of the pyramid. In time some other valuable components ar added till we move to a state of 100% purity. We have nowhere to go, we can just analyse, interprete and repeat. (Centers of Rome, Paris,….in smaller degree center of Amsterdam). A determined process.

Value system 2: {Mutation}There is a constant change of definition about what is valuable from time to time. We search but we don’t know why and what for. An experimental process, but because of the lack of framework it has a random character.

Value system 3: {Prisma}

Value system 3: {Prisma}

“What we see, experience, believe is separated  by the veil of perception, just as the prism separates white light into many colors.”

Lazlo Moholy Nagy - The tales of Hoffmann

It is as if you are surrounded by a continues decor, an everchanging stageset, shifting position, you are not the spectator, you are standing inside it, pulled up and moved around in its fragments.

Marcel Moonen - mud, clay, sand and sky

Time to reflect, Time to relate,

Time for the first confront

www.marcelmoonen.com