Introduction Lelystad | Polders
Text taken from the Inventory of the Archive of C. van Eesteren. Andrea Prins 7-2015

The inventory made relates to those archival parts of the Van Eesteren collection dealing with the IJsselmeerpolders and Lelystad. The documents belonging to these archives were collected by C. van Eesteren between 1941 and 1965 in view of the various positions he held in the IJsselmeerpolders during that period.

The archive section Lelystad [section 5: Lelystad] contains documents relating to Van Eesteren's work as designer of the urban plan. In the archive section Polders [section 9: Polders] the documents relate to various advisory functions, which Van Eesteren fulfilled.

This has obviously affected the nature of the material collected: in the case of Lelystad, Van Eesteren's personal work is the focal point of the archive section, while in the case of Polders the emphasis is on material produced by committees and government departments and sent to the consultant. Although the structure of the inventory of both parts of the archive is the same, the character of the documents differs greatly. It is important to face this in advance.

Zef Hemel