Atlas Contact Publishers, Amsterdam

Publication 'Layered Land. A journey through the political map of the Netherlands'.

In the book 'Gelaagd land. A journey through the political map of the Netherlands', Josse de Voogd sketches a portrait of our country. With the election results in hand, Josse de Voogd unravels the question: how is this country structured; historically, socially and spatially/morphologically? The publication will cast a surprising glance at a divided and dispersed Netherlands, and at its urban planning, urbanism and landscape formation. By charting and describing the dynamics of social phenomena, attractively visualising research data, and contributing to discussions about the social and spatial inequality and also the spatial future of the Netherlands, the book project is in keeping with the early approaches of Cornelis van Eesteren and Theodoor Karel van Lohuizen. The specific developments taking place in regions, settlements and neighbourhoods of the Netherlands are revealed in detail, as is their connection with the built environment. In the book, the author builds on existing published work, archived sources and notes and additional explorations of literature, dates and locations. The themes of the publication are situated at the interface of research, design, politics and policy. Current issues are linked to developments in the past, which in turn offer lessons for the future. The multidisciplinary character and the combination of angles, from historical research to observations at street level, make it an innovative project.