Neighborhood Design around Delft: Visits to Oost Tanthof and Delfgauw

Today we had the chance to get acquainted with Dutch urban form at a neighborhood scale while visiting Oost Tanthof and Delfgauw, residential areas of Delft, by bike. The Oost Tanthof neighborhood dates back to the 1980s, while Delfgauw, an area developed in the 90s which continues to functionally serve the Delft municipality. The latter consists of a higher-income demographic and more modern architecture. Unlike most of the residential areas of the United States and Canada, these Duch neighborhoods do not privilege sprawling development and autocentrism. Oost Tanthof enables circulation throughout the neighborhood and connectivity to the rest of Delft by supporting multi-modal mobility through walking, cycling, and bus transit. Delfgauw displays half automobile/ half bicycle infrastructure.

Lack of side friction in a typical American residential street encourages speeding. In addition, few sidewalks and bike paths and few services/ places within close proximity to go limit walking or cycling. 

 Tanthof applies the slow streets concept through speed bumps and the narrowing of streets, also known as 'road dieting'

Tanthof resembles the village-like built environment upheld by landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and works as an admirable example of a 'walkable, sustainable community'. Notice through the photos how much attention is paid to diversity of housing types, mixed- use development, greenery, and modest density to accomodate families and senior citizens alike. Schools, shops, and recreational facilities exist within close proximity (1-10 minute walking distance) from homes. Although the central shopping strip did not contain much variety, with only a Jumbo supermarket, bakery, and hair dresser in sight, to name a few, it surely fulfills the basic needs for those living nearby. For more choices, residents can easily bike to central Delft.

Clearly, planners tried fitting in multi-family housing into as small land parcels as possible, without overwhelming the area with density and threatening its tranquil, residential character. Blocks are kept short and permeable through narrow walkways between housing developments. Traffic calming techniques are also applied through small speed bumps and road narrowing. Roads rarely impede connectivity, as leveled walkways connect buildings to each other-- for instance, at a school and an apartment building.

 Duplexes enable land use efficiency but the private entrances and backyards resemble those of a detached home. Privacy and density increases are reconciled by enabling a bit of room for backyard space with good access to natural green space. 

Shopping trips can be made most conveniently by bike, as few car parking spots are available and travel distances are kept to a minimum.

Narrow walkways enable pedestrian flexibility across the neighborhood and adhere to human scale 

The Emerald development in Delfgauw harbors more modern housing and a shopping mall-like center, with a few essential stores, like a bakery, large grocery store, hair salon, and some other specialty shops. The community felt less mixed use, as the shopping center was centralized, perhaps explaining why the neighborhood lacked some vibrancy. Nonetheless, the neighborhood still ensures walkability and bikability. Although the parking lot size and form resembled that of a typical American supermarket's, Emerald's lot could be accessed by bikes through ramps and contained sufficient bike racks.


The development contains a range of housing typologies. Some blocks had large enough lots for semi-detached duplexes and row housing with room for parking in front and back gardens. These 'houses' had their own entrances and could be accessed from both the front from the street and back from a narrow walking path. In this sense, it resembled a hybrid of an American suburb with the density of an old English suburb. Apartment complexes also existed nearby. The mixed demographic mirrors the diverse housing types: children, older couples, and young teenagers and students all frequented the streets of this neighborhood. In terms of traffic patterns, this neighborhood, although slightly less bike friendly and more car friendly, felt safe to cycle around and drivers were always cautious and yielded to us as we crossed roads on our bikes. Thank the speed bumps and narrow streets, which slow vehicle speeds, as well as Dutch laws which hold drivers fully accountable for any accidents.

For more information on cycling and traffic culture in the Netherlands, read here

The Emerald shopping center parking lot resembles that of an expansive American parking lot, with the exception of bicycle transport accommodation

The Emerald's mid rise development with rather green frontages and car parking offset further from homes to make room for a sidewalk at the entrance.

Arranging a city to a symphony

A symphony of algorithms, that is.

Franz Ulm and Roland Pellenc, two MIT specialists in the atomic structure of cement, discovered that the texture of a city can be identical to crystalline patterns of elements in the periodic table. Such a random yet intriguing analogy reiterated something important to them: "that the laws of molecular physics can be applied to the texture of cities".

Using physics and equations to form the perfect city optimizes sustainability by building efficiently. Luis Bettencourt believes that the way to approach this method would be to seek the function of cities, not the form - what purpose does that city serve to the people? This will set the universal parameters for building that city, which works together with what Bettencourt calls "the social reactor" (a.k.a. the social dynamic in cities that produces creative and economic outcomes). Now this is the connection that we are looking for in every successful city, and this is what we need to optimize in every city along with energy efficiency and natural resource conservation. At the moment, the only way this sort of dynamic can be measured is through indicators such as city size and interactions within the population  (i.e. crime rates).

Socialisation, as it turns out, is the key to optimizing not only a city's economy, but an energy efficient city. Take this example - in a high-density city with fairly moderate public transport but high crime rate, people are more likely to avoid taking public transport and will drive individual cars. The more cars there are on the road, the higher the amount of GHG gases are emitted, which only leads to a greater carbon footprints that contributes to the upcoming apocalypse-via-global-warming. In fact, in one of his papers, "A unified theory of urban living", Bettencourt argues that the growth of both good and bad development is actually dependent on the size of the city. Mathematically, both good (e.g. opportunity)and bad (e.g. crime) development will increase by 15% should the city's size increase. Such metric data and mathematical analysis has always been used to guide an urban planner's hand, but using actual equations and universal parameters to help pursue optimal investments is a game changer in that it reduces the chances of unintended catastrophic consequences.

That being said, one wonders what the limitations of such a mathematical approach is. In my personal opinion, using mathematics to maximize municipal investment decisions and thereby spend money in the "right" way can go two ways. It will either benefit taxpayers by spending money where it is needed (assuming that municipal authorities are responsible with tax money...this might be bordering on fantasy for some urban areas), or it will ignore the necessity of what cannot be quantified in terms of dollar bills - for example, the necessity of trees and greenspace. Quantification of such amenities are also sometimes rejected because anything can dwindle in monetary value, and this can cause ramifications in appreciating the value of trees, highlighted as an issue because trees are already experiencing a game of thrones level of death as it is. Also, we need trees to survive.

Then again, this approach looks at the city as a system and goes beyond employing sustainable architecture. Using mathematics to engineer the perfect city allows us to foresee how our decisions can impact the global future with logical, rational eyes. It does not limit growth by developing the perfect city that cannot be tweaked because of its perfection; instead it focuses on keeping the city perfect throughout time - factoring in adaptations that need to constantly be made to accommodate changes in the universal parameters of city design. What interests me about this approach is whether we can use the mathematical concepts here to measure energy inputs and outputs in a natural ecosystem and whether it is therefore worth comparing a city's energy efficiency with nature's.

In the past, we have made several erroneous decisions and several great decisions when it came to urban planning. The point with this approach is to eliminate erroneous possibilities and to assist municipal authorities into making the most fiscally responsible decisions - not only in terms of money, but in terms of social, economic and political sustainability as well. No more planned shrinkages in the Bronx that only resulted in higher crime rates. No more gentrification of Jacobian streets that exclude poorer classes. Though this process may not promise us a threat-free world, it might yet compose a world sweeter to the ear.

Tabinda Shah.