Lelystad will have a new national monument, the NS station with the glass roof

Train travelers with destination Lelystad may soon be left for one of the first national monuments built after 1965. NS station Lelystad Centrum, with fourteen other structures, artworks or landscapes, has been nominated as a new national monument from the 65-period item. This was announced on Thursday afternoon in Hengelo, the National Service for Cultural Heritage (RCE), at the Kasbah residential complex of architect Piet Blom, which is also on the list.

The fifteen objects were chosen by RCE experts from a list of nearly 1,500 locations that have been proposed by heritage associations, municipalities and experts. Residents could also think along which art and construction works with construction years should be preserved between 1965 and 1990.

The selection was quite a job, says architecture historian Kees Somer of the RCE. “We have mainly searched for works that are illustrative of social developments during this period.”

For example, Lelystad Centrum NS station, with a glass roof of 143 meters long and 19 meters wide, is a symbol for the arrival of the twelfth Dutch province after the reclamation of the Flevopolder in the 1950s and 60s. But also for the construction of new railway lines and ‘a new impetus at the Dutch railways in the 1980s’, Somer says. “It fits in a row of colored high -tech Stations, such as Almere Centrum, Amsterdam Sloterdijk and Zaandam. ”

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Crystal Palace

For the design of those stations, NS chief architect Cees Douma came up with a fixed color range at the time, the RCE writes On her website. Constructive elements turned red, speakers and lamps green and the rain drainage blue. This is also the case at Lelystad Centrum station, which Douma called ‘Crystal Palace’ after completion in 1988.

On the list are well -known brutalist buildings, such as the Terneuzen town hall and the structuralistic office building of Centraal Beheer in Apeldoorn in Apeldoorn. But also structures that “stand out less,” says Somer. “We chose the Musketon community center as a symbol for the neighborhood work that emerged in new neighborhoods such as the Utrecht Lunetten district, where it was built. A very intensive participation process has preceded the construction, that also makes it special. And it is still in use.”

The Yunus Emre Mosque in Almelo is also on the list. Somer: “The first mosque with minaret and dome that was built in the Netherlands.” The Rodahal in Kerkrade and Plein ‘Blauwe Waven’ in Arnhem also deserve the monument status according to the RCE.

The buildings and art from the post 65 period come at an age that they need to be renewed. “That must be done in a good way. We must now know which buildings we want to protect,” says Somer. Buildings with a monument status may not be demolished, renewal plans must first be tested.

Initially, the RCE was the first to present twelve objects as a new national monument. On Advice from the Council for Culture Three objects have been added. Now each province has at least one on the list. Water tower ‘De Witte Bollen’ in Eindhoven, the Landscape Artwork ‘Broken Circle/Spiral Hill’ near Emmen and the Hubertushuis in Amsterdam were added to the list of monuments last month.

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Valuation

It can take another six months for the objects to actually get the monument status. First, interested parties can still submit views and advice is requested from the relevant municipality or province.

Next year the List Potential Monuments will be supplemented to a maximum of 150 buildings, artworks and landscapes. Somer: “That is of course almost nothing in a total of four million buildings from this period.” The architecture historian hopes that the monument status of a small selection of buildings leads to more fame and appreciation of the architecture from the 65-era post.

That appreciation is not enough now, according to Somer. “This is how it goes more often. The nineteenth century used to be maligned as a uninteresting period.”