Spangen is a neighborhood of Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Quick Facts Country, Province ...

Spangen
Neighbourhood of Rotterdam
Country	Netherlands
Province	South Holland
COROP	Rotterdam
Borough	Delfshaven
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)

Close

It is in the west of the city with about 10000 inhabitants. From the entrance of Spangen to the center is formed by the Mathenesserbrug across the Delfshavense Schie.

The design of the area is world-famous among architects and urban planners,^[1] but for the casual visitor it is not the first thing that strikes. Spangen is socio-economically one of the poorest neighborhoods of the country. The population is over 85 percent of foreign origin.

In 1909 the polder adjacent to the Kanal was drained and the city designated it land for housing the rapidly growing white collar population. Under a master plan drawn up the Gemeentelijke Woningdienst in 1917, all prominent architects designed housing blocks for the sector. There are blocks by Oud, Brinkman, Buskens, Kruithof en Meischke en Schmidt. The block on Justus van Effenstraat, the four storey Justus van Effencomplex by Michiel Brinkman introduced the concept of a shared private space, an inner courtyard over which the maisonettes focusses and on the third storey the maisonettes were accessed by a 3m wide continuous gallery. He called this a 'bovenstraat', which in English translates as a Street in the sky. This concept was developed by Le Corbusier for his Unite d'Habitation in Marseilles, and later by Peter and Alison Smithson for Golden Lane Estate and Robin Hood Gardens, in London.^[1]

The Justus van Effencomplex remained popular into the 1950s but then suffered demographic change, and lack of investment. In 1984, the De Jonge architectural practice began work on renovating this housing complex in close collaboration with the Netherlands Department for Conservation. Pairs of maisonette were combined into a single four- or five-room apartment suitable for families with children. The access gallery was carefully restored and partly replaced, the communal baths became a crèche and meeting room.^[2] However the courtyard walls were rendered in white and this rapidly deteriorated and the scheme was not judged a success.^[3]

In 2012 the complex was completely restored back to its original finishings.^[2][3]

• Michiel Brinkman