Original card found

In the summer of 1935, the municipal council accepted the General Extension Plan of Amsterdam (AUP), on which urban planner Cornelis van Eesteren had worked for six years. Several smaller maps of his plan were known. On 24 December 2008, the large presentation map of the design was found, unfortunately in poor condition. Thanks to a grant from the EFL Fund, it could be thoroughly restored. The result was exhibited from December 2009 to January 2010 in the Treasure Gallery of the Stadsarchief Amsterdam.

In 1933, the General Expansion Plan appeared in draft form. It made clear how the expansion of the capital should take place, at least in the opinion of Cornelis van Eesteren (1897-1988), head of the Urban Development Department of the Public Works Administration. In particular, the city would have to expand strongly in western and southern directions. The AUP formed the basis for almost all subsequent city expansions. The plan was adopted by the municipal council on 18 July 1935 and approved by Royal Decree on 18 July 1939.

In the Explanatory Memorandum and the Annexes to the plan, a series of thematic maps were included, including the intended separation of the functions of living, working, recreation and traffic, as well as the well-known printed survey map (80.5 x94 cm) of the entire plan, at a scale of 1:25,000. However, there is another picture from 1935. It appeared as an appendix to the architectural weekly Architectura of 23 March 1935, in which the plan was discussed. Later, on the 50th anniversary of the plan in 1985, the map was reprinted one to one on a scale of 1:25,000 and a smaller reproduction (40.5 x47 cm, scale 1:50,000) was issued. Many an Amsterdam enthusiast owns that version.

But what seemed to be missing was a wall-to-wall 'presentation map', as we know from the older expansion plans by Van Eesteren's predecessors Van Niftrik (1866, measuring no less than 421×319 cm) and Kalff (1875, measuring 170×175 cm). These colossal maps were used to present grand plans to the city council.

Hidden in the turret

As part of the gigantic digitisation process in which the City Archives is engaged, all 'large formats' that were mounted between sticks were rolled open at the end of 2008 (for scanning). The majority of these turned out not to have been described. As a kind of Christmas present, the last map (216 x 270 cm) was rolled open on the afternoon of 24 December. It turned out to show the AUP at a scale of 1:10,000. Presumably, the map has been in the collection of the Stadsarchief for decades. But because in archival institutions maps between sticks are often - wrongly - seen as a kind of stepchild, they are usually put in a corner where they do not come out for decades. The reason is that they are usually awkwardly large and difficult to unroll, and often very fragile. In this case, that 'corner' was the attic of the old municipal archive on the Amsteldijk. Until the move to the Vijzelstraat in 2007, the AUP card, together with the largest of the other stick cards, was kept rolled up and upright in the little tower that adorns the building. In retrospect, it is incomprehensible that the card was not recognised earlier.

Until the end of 2008, the existence of the large AUP map was unknown. If Vincent van Rossem had found any mention of it during his doctoral research (1991), he would undoubtedly have written about it. It remains a guess as to what exactly the map's function was. The map measures over two by almost three metres. It must have been used to show groups of people the plan. One might think of the members of the municipal executive and the municipal council. After all, they were the ones who had to provide the finances for the plans drawn on the city budget. The map will also have been used to inform other groups of interested parties (fellow architects from home and abroad, societies, project developers). In short, the map certainly had an informative, but probably also a representative function. It is also conceivable that it hung, possibly for years, in the Van Eesteren office at the Department of Public Works. The map does not appear to have been forgotten immediately. During the recent restoration, evidence was found that it had been refurbished earlier, probably in the late 1950s - perhaps for a presentation on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the AUP in 1960.

Amsterdam Extension Plan

Why was the General Expansion Plan so interesting? It was not only important for Amsterdam, but also marked an international trend in urban development. In addition to his official position in Amsterdam, Van Eesteren held the prestigious position of chairman of the Congrès International d'Architecture Moderne (CIAM). Under his leadership, a charter was drawn up at the fourth CIAM congress in 1933 that focused on the separation of the functions of living, working, recreation and traffic in urban development. These functions have different colours on the AUP map. The shades of red stand for housing (new buildings), the shades of beige/brown for working, the shades of green for recreation and the shades of yellow for the new roads to be built. It is interesting to note that on the map, the green strips for recreation (e.g. Amsterdamse Bos and sports fields) run like long fingers from the outskirts of the city far into the urban areas, but also separate the residential areas from the industrial areas.

A few small parts of the plan turn out not to have been executed or to have been executed slightly differently than Van Eesteren had envisaged. The planned cemetery in the Riekerpolder and some railway tracks and marshalling yards did not materialise, and some harbour basins were given a different shape.

Holes as a reminder

It was easy to see that the topographic subsoil is the same as that of the smaller ones. Only the scales differ. The colouring (the plan itself), however, does have - small - differences. The ground chosen by Van Eesteren is very similar to the maps produced by the Topographical Service (of Defence) in the 1930s, but is not the same. Also, no map of Public Works known to us was used.

What is certain is that the topographical background of Van Eesteren's giant map is an enlargement of a map on a much smaller scale from shortly after 1930. No ordinary paper was used for this. It was a photographic reproduction printed on paper similar to the well-known 'stink copies' from around 1970. Six consecutive shots were made for this purpose. The six reproductions were then mounted on a large piece of linen. Afterwards, the plan was painted on the mounting by (employees of?) Van Eesteren using gouache paint. Looking at the map in more detail, it is striking that it has many hundreds of 'pinholes'. There are a few different reasons for this.

Firstly, many holes served as an aid for placing symbols on the map exactly. This not only concerns the legend blocks on the right-hand side, but especially the colour areas that have a recurring (e.g. cube) pattern. For this purpose, pinholes were made at fixed distances. The draughtsman who had to draw the intended tight lines in such a plane could then focus on that. Other holes seem to have been made to make copies (on the same scale) of parts of the map. For example, the coastline of the eastern IJ, on both the north and south sides, is completely covered in holes.

Finally, there are also patterns of three holes close together that form a triangle. These are the traces of old-fashioned drawing pins, which used to have three legs. There is a good chance that Van Eesteren pinned 'old-fashioned yellows' to the map with instructions for his draughtsmen. As a final step in the production process, sticks were attached to the top and bottom. In this way, it could be freely displayed.

Restoration

When the card was rolled open in December 2008, it appeared that the card was in very poor condition. There were holes and tears in the card, it was 'cracked' and the stick at the top had been torn off for about a quarter of its length. If you rolled it open or closed, the shreds of paper would fly around. There was also a large break in the paper from top to bottom, across the middle of the card. This split the six pieces of paper that originally made up the card image in two. It was only thanks to the linen carrier that the paper did not disintegrate into two pieces.

the bridge
Because the map is of outstanding historical significance, a grant for its restoration was applied for from the Van Eesteren-Fluck & Van Lohuizen Foundation. Thanks to a quick and generous grant, preparations could already begin in April 2009. First, a special bridge on wheels was built. This could be driven over the map. When the restorers sat on it, they could also work in the middle of the map.

the bridge
First the sticks were removed. The map image was cleaned, the old linen backing was removed and holes and cracks were filled with Japanese paper. In early September 2009, the entire map was doubled again, not with linen, but with Japanese paper. This was done to give the card new strength.

During the restoration, the puncture holes mentioned above were noticed for the first time. Only then did it become clear that the map had already been restored, probably half a century ago. This could be deduced from a few extra strips of linen, which clearly did not date from 1935. It also appeared that parts of the blue-coloured water on the chart had been painted over with a slightly lighter shade of paint. This too was apparently done after 1935.

In contemporary restoration practice, damages to the old object are no longer retouched or coloured. However, as the Japanese paper that sealed holes and cracks in the old paper can also be removed (a restoration should always be reversible), there is little objection to giving it a colour similar to its surroundings. This makes the fibres less conspicuous and creates a more even image. The two sticks will not be reattached to the card. The risk of new cracks is too great. Naturally, they will be kept.

Finally to be seen again
In a period of eight months in 2009, the AUP map was rolled out on a large table of the restoration department of the Stadsarchief Amsterdam. The public could view it during the Open Monuments Weekend of 12 and 13 September 2009, where the daily theme was Monuments on the Map, and during the National Archives Day on 17 October of the same year. The restorers showed the Van Eesteren map to several thousand visitors. They also told about their work process. From mid-December 2009 to the end of January 2010, their final result could be viewed in its full glory in the treasure room of the Stadsarchief. After that, it was rolled up and will only be seen in very exceptional cases. For although the map has now been restored with great skill, it remains a vulnerable object. Be that as it may, the restoration (which was made possible by a contribution from the Van Eesteren-Fluck & Van Lohuizen Foundation) fortunately ensures the preservation of this historically important map for decades to come.