Materialisation in Cauliflower Neighbourhoods

The architecture of the cauliflower neighbourhoods is characterised by a high degree of variety and complexity. It was designed to be small scale, pluriform and recognisable to mimic historical dutch cities and villages. However, there are no overly obvious references to be found. Something that characterises the architecture in many cauliflower neighbourhoods, is the absence of monumentality and the architectures’ unobtrusiveness.

Although cauliflower neighbourhoods were a reaction on the modernist way of building the influence of modernism was still evident in the architecture. The first neighbourhoods in the 1970s were built in the visual language of functionalism, with straight corners and flat rooftop. Over time, architects began to experiment more and more with housing types, architectural styles, relationship between buildings and relationships between buildings and the public space. The architecture transformed more complex shapes containing variating housing styles.

The high level of complexity in the architecture resulted in a rather high degree of overall homogeneity. Many houses are build with the same materials which contributes to the inconspicuousness of the architecture. Many dwellings are made of brick in shades of brown and grey combined with wood and tiles. Despite all attempts to build recognisable and individual, the architecture of cauliflower neighbourhoods remained fairly uniform.