Ruimtelijke kaders voor een industrialiserende regio. De evolutie van de streekplanning in Zuidoost Brabant 1929-1965

Around 1900 the landscape of the province of North-Brabant saw rapid changes. Since the rash disappearance of heather landscape and the boom of the new industrial centres were noted and seen as a problem, councils took to a locally or regionally (and later provincially) centralised planning. In this article the town and country planning in the South-East of the province during the period 1916-1965 is discussed in detail. The lead was taken by the council of Eindhoven where especially the rapid growth of the Philips factories necessitated a planning which was concerned with the surrounding villages as well. A central figure in this was the civil engineer J.M. de Casseres, who was inspired by Patrick Abercrombie and Ebenezer Howard. Later De Casseres came under attack from more conservative (Roman Catholic and regionalistic) policy makers and in 1938 he left and travelled to the United States of America. After Worldwar II industrialisation came to be seen as a problematic necessity threatening the traditional village life and its values. As a result planning took a new direction in which even in the cities small-scale (parish based) community life became the ideal. Later views changed again as the perspective became wider and the region began to be seen in the context of the whole country or even the Benelux and more. As a general conclusion it can be stated that on the whole factual developments took place quite apart from planning, which always involved a long process resulting more in useful reports about the socio-economic situation and definitions of desired changes than in real long-term results in the towns and landscape.