Post-World War II Urban Development in American-Dutch Perspectives: Levittown, PA & Rotterdam, NL 1945-1965

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2016-08-15

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en

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After WWII, the way people lived changed drastically in both the United States and the Netherlands. In the United States, the end of the war meant an influx of veterans looking for a place to start their families outside of the cities, which had gone neglected for decades. Government policies favored suburban housing, and pioneers like the Levitt & Sons company handily picked up on these by constructing massive developments such as Levittown, Pennsylvania. Levittown focused on creating communities through homogeneity in spatial layout and social structure. In the Netherlands, the German occupation during WWII left its marks. People were housed in appalling residences, which called for a large scale reconstruction (“wederopbouw”) of the country. The centers of cities like Rotterdam were bombed, giving urban planners an opportunity to rebuild them using new ideas. Rotterdam was rebuilt with a city center focused on shopping and public services, while residential areas were located on the edges of the city. These new residential areas followed the “neighborhood model”, which meant that they had a certain level of self-sufficiency and were supposed to encourage the formation of socially diverse communities. Keywords: urban planning; suburbs; Levittown; Rotterdam; reconstruction; wederopbouw

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