Tapijtmetropool (The Patchwork Metropolis), 1989. Introduction

In 1989 the young Dutch architect Willem Jan Neutelings, who had just left the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, was called to develop a project for the area of Ypenburg. The site is clearly located just in between two urban areas—The Hague and Delft—but, at the same time, is also part of that complex territorial construction known as the Randstad, where the explosive growth of urban or suburban phenomena has led to a singular blurring of the distinction between the city and the countryside. In this context Neutelings proposed his reinterpretation of the urban form called De Tapijtmetropool or Patchwork Metropolis.