De Zoetelaar
Almere's designers believed that historical references would give people a sense of home. In line with this view, architect Kees Rijnboutt proposed creating a shopping arcade. Passages emerged in the late nineteenth century, when selling places had to be created for the luxury consumer goods that entered the market on a large scale. Covered streets appeared in city centres such as The Hague, Paris and Brussels, providing a transition between the publicness of city streets and more homely atmospheres. Zoetelaar Passage is a modern variant of this type. Here, no intimacy and twilight with luxury goods for the rich, but openness, freshness and low-threshold offerings.
The slender, vertical articulation of the ...
Almere's designers believed that historical references would give people a sense of home. In line with this view, architect Kees Rijnboutt proposed creating a shopping arcade. Passages emerged in the late nineteenth century, when selling places had to be created for the luxury consumer goods that entered the market on a large scale. Covered streets appeared in city centres such as The Hague, Paris and Brussels, providing a transition between the publicness of city streets and more homely atmospheres. Zoetelaar Passage is a modern variant of this type. Here, no intimacy and twilight with luxury goods for the rich, but openness, freshness and low-threshold offerings.
The slender, vertical articulation of the exterior facades in orange-brown brick recalls classical architecture. The interior was painted yellow and light blue, a stylistic feature of postmodernism. That original passage with its semicircular glass canopy was beautiful, but not very practical. The acoustics in particular gave problems. Consequently, renovations were soon carried out, with pastel shades having to give way to new fashion colours. Shop and office managers come and go, but De Zoetelaar remains a nice, sheltered place where shoppers are indeed at home.