What is Post 65?

Post 65 is the collective name for Dutch architecture, urban design and landscape design from the period 1965 to 1990. The term came into general use through the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), which set out in its Verkenning Post 65 study to establish what from those decades is worth keeping. That survey has since grown into a designation programme for young national monuments.

It is therefore not a style but a period label — comparable to the way “post-war reconstruction” covers 1940 to 1965.

Why 1965?

Something shifts in the mid-1960s. The large-scale, rational reconstruction of identical slab blocks runs into resistance. The welfare state reaches its height, residents start speaking up, and participation becomes a watchword. The Experimental Housing Programme of 1968 is the institutional expression of this: central government deliberately funds unconventional housing projects in order to raise the standard of living.

Recognisable themes

• Small scale and legibility, in reaction to the anonymity of the slab-block estate
• The home zone (woonerf) — the street laid out for pedestrians and playing children, with meandering alignments, planters and brick paving. The concept was adopted internationally from the Netherlands.
• Structuralism — buildings assembled from repeated, equivalent units around an “in-between” space; internationally the best-known Dutch export of the period
• Resident participation, extending to self-build and shell housing
• Postmodernism from the late 1970s, with quotations from classical architecture, colour and facade ornament
• Compact building and the first energy-conscious housing after the 1973 oil crisis
• Large new towns in designated growth centres such as Almere, Zoetermeer, Lelystad and Houten

Why it matters now

These buildings are now thirty to sixty years old and are coming up for refurbishment, retrofit or demolition on a large scale. At the same time appreciation is uneven: much of this work is still regarded as “old but not old enough”. The RCE study is subtitled New perspectives between prosperity and resistance, and that captures it.

Points to watch when altering or retrofitting

1. Check the status. Some of these buildings are now listed nationally or locally, or sit in a protected area. Ask the local authority before you plan.
2. The structure is often lighter than you think. Much housing of these years has thin inner leaves and light floors; solar panels, a roof extension or a heavier floor finish call for a check calculation.
3. Asbestos. Asbestos-containing materials were in use until the 1993 ban — among other places in corrugated sheeting, planters, soil stacks and window boards. Have a survey done before demolition work.
4. Insulate with care. The characteristic facade — exposed brickwork in an unusual bond, concrete elements, timber cladding — disappears under external wall insulation. Weigh up cavity fill and internal insulation as alternatives.
5. The detail carries the design. Overhangs, roof edges, canopies and colour do the expressive work in this architecture. Simplifying them during refurbishment is usually the end of its character.

Related terms

• Post-war reconstruction
• Postmodernism
• Structuralism
• Listed building
• Home zone
• Architectural style

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