Building regulations and urban development in Late Medieval Elburg and Early Modern Amsterdam

Abstract

This chapter deals with the interacting aspects of urban development and building regulations in the Netherlands. Two towns are placed in context and compared, both of them known for their systematic lay-out: the small town of Elburg, which was founded as a new town in the fourteenth century, and Amsterdam, which became one of the largest European towns during the Dutch Golden Age. Over the long term, the development of urban practice and building codes shows more continuity than is generally assumed. Perhaps the main difference between medieval and early modern urbanism in the Netherlands lies in the amount of archival material on which we base our ideas on planning, not on the motives and methods of planners.