Bulletin KNOB

Articles

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  The Topography of Dutch Building History before 1800

  On the regional diversity of building practices in the past and the use

  Gabri van Tussenbroek

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  This article begins by examining how distribution maps relating to built heritage have been utilized within the fields of ethnology, historical geography, architectural history and research into rural and agricultural architecture. Up until the Second World War, this occurred primarily within ethnology and had a strong ideological slant. In historical geography, there was virtually no focus on built heritage, while there was scant development of the use of distribution maps in the history of architecture and building. The article then goes on to discuss the method of mapping in the past....

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  Building Quality in Focus

  Regulation, supervision, construction and drawing quality before and after the Housing Act of 1901 and the Amsterdam building code of 1905

  Arthur Friederichs

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  In the nineteenth century, Amsterdam grew explosively. To keep pace with population growth, urban expansion was largely left to the free market. Anyone could become a builder, flooding the city with hastily and cheaply constructed housing. This so-called ‘revolutiebouw’ (speculative building) led to dangerous situations: houses collapsed, facades fell over and fires spread rapidly due to poor construction and insufficient oversight. This study examines the role of supervision and regulation in structurally improving building quality in Amsterdam between 1851 and 1914, with particular...