Once established with high-flying ideals...
	... the Spaanse Polder later declined into an outdated and impoverished area...
	... where the political leadership ultimately had to take drastic action.

The name 'Spaanse Polder' has nothing to do with Spain; the name comes from a small river, the Spangen. Incidentally, the Spaanse Polder could just as easily have been called the German polder after 1940: the occupying German forces played an important role in the initial development of the business park.

A sophisticated plan was drawn up for the polder that consisted of three zones with neatly segregated estates separated from each other by a green wedge with central facilities. Each zone had its own characteristic features, among other things because of the type of access: road, water, railway or combinations of the three. The plan came from the City of Rotterdam, with the civil servants Witteveen and Angenot as the designers. They were not free of a certain idealism. Their idea was that the Spaanse Polder should be a pleasant, effective and human place as a result of careful and businesslike design.

A factory built earlier at the edge of the polder had already set tone: the Van Nelle factory. As a manufacturer of coffee, tea and tobacco, Van Nelle wanted to contribute to the emancipation of the working class. The British example was what people had in mind: a civic centre with all sorts of communal provisions for the workers.

Oddly enough, the estate just wouldn't get off the ground. In the early years, there were few companies who wanted to move there. Little was seen of the intensive building in the models and the drawings. And the polder remained quite empty until late in the 1960s. The area got cluttered up: houseboats moved into the harbours and caravans into empty lots.

By this time, people had lost sight of the bright ideals of the early days; slowly but surely the area began to be developed as a 'normal' estate characterised by efficiency, flexibility and maximum exploitation of the available ground. The ongoing improvements in access to the area drew in large companies, most of which were involved in road haulage.

And new trends began about twenty years ago: from small numbers of large factories to large numbers of small offices, from blue collar to white collar, an increasing proportion of wholesale and retail traders and rising numbers of ethnic companies.

There was a risk of impoverishment and so the City of Rotterdam decided on an 'extreme makeover' due for completion within fifteen years.
Sources include: City of Industry, An Architectural History of Spaanse Polder Rotterdam, 1998

	Le Corbusier said the following about the building of the architects Brinkman and Van der Vlugt: 'The most wonderful spectacle of the modern age.'

Brinkman and Van der Vlugt wanted the tight straight lines and the open display of installations to emphasise the achievements of a new rational age. The French architect Le Corbusier described the Van Nelle factory as follows: 'The most wonderful spectacle of the modern age, with an unconditional purity.'