The Wonderful 'hague Height'

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jan klerks van de stichting hoogbouw bericht over een thema omtrent hoogbouw in relatie tot meervoudig ruimtegebruik

Photo: Peter Hilz/Hollandse Hoogte

The wonderful ‘Hague Height’

Over the years quite a number of Dutch towns and cities have produced guidance on tall buildings. Some of these are small towns, like Zwijndrecht (about 42,000 inhabitants) and Veendam (about 30,000), which are still in their high-rise infancy. While height is a relative concept, one can seriously question whether these towns need such a document. Rotterdam and The Hague, of course, can make a much more convincing case for having a tall buildings policy. Frank van der Hoeven, TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture / Illustrations: Frank van der Hoeven

The development of high-rise urban areas is more strongly rooted

moving in a different direction from that stated in the city’s policy.

in their past, they have experienced greater development pressures

The Hague’s policy is so far off the mark, it makes you wonder

in recent years and most of their tall buildings are more than 50

what went wrong. Is the city unable to produce a policy document

metres high. But a closer look at the policies the larger Dutch cities

of substance? Or has their document been distorted by political

have in place leads us to question whether they are robust enough

compromises? And why did a professional organisation like The

to guide the development of high-rise urban areas.

Hague’s urban planning department decide to hide behind the

Take The Hague’s policy for high-rise buildings (the Hoogbouwvisie)

myth of a non-existent ‘Hague Height’? Although we cannot

as an example. Our analysis of this policy and developments on the

answer these questions, we can take a detailed look at the

ground reveals that recent and future developments in the city are

underlying issues.

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three main components The Hague’s tall building policy is built around three main

rise or tall buildings, which is a serious weakness. What is the value of a policy document that fails to give a definition of what the

components: the building heights in the city, the high-rise

policy is about? Second, the document should contain an up-to-

developments in the different city districts, and possible future

date list of the existing and planned tall buildings above 50 meters

developments. In this respect the document speaks about a distinct

within the city boundaries, because those are the objects subject

‘Hague Height’ Haagse Hoogte): a typical building height between

to the guidance. Readers could then draw their own conclusions.

50 and 70 metres that used to characterise the city’s skyline.

Although a list is the most common way to display this kind of

The policy gives a number of reasons why buildings did not exceed

information, we made a scatterplot to give a clearer picture.

this height. One reason is that older policies prohibited building

A scatterplot is a simple but efficient way to display the relation

higher than 70 metres in the historic city centre, defined by a

between two types of quantitative data connected to a certain

strategic view from De Plaats, a square near the old Parliament

number of objects.

buildings. Another reason was the need to maintain an open corridor along the Utrechtse Baan (Beatrixkwartier) for the transmission of telecommunication signals. Both restrictions have

height and time Armed with data on the height and year of construction of the

since been lifted. This is reflected in the new official tall buildings

tall buildings in The Hague, we plotted a graph of height (y axis)

policy, which permits buildings over 100 metres in this area, but

against time (x axis). By including buildings under construction and

the policy still rules out the construction of buildings between 70

proposed buildings we created something like a timeline for high-

and 100 metres in the interest of preserving the integrity of the

rise development in The Hague. This revealed that the development

established skyline in the historic city centre. The city cherishes

of tall buildings in The Hague started in the late 1960s and

its ‘Hague Height’. The policy document even includes a full page

remained relatively constant for two to three decades thereafter.

sketch of the city centre skyline to emphasise the point.

Then, in the mid 1990s, building heights rose sharply, almost doubling in less than a decade. The diagram clearly shows that

The intention is noble. There is one problem, though. When we take

there is a context and a rationale for a strategic planning guidance

a look at the actual heights of tall buildings in The Hague, there is

on tall buildings in The Hague.

no such thing as a typical ‘Hague Height’ – at least not between 50 and 70 metres. There are several databases on tall buildings

We also coloured the scatterplot to represent the different height

available on the Internet, most notably the listings at

categories identified by the municipality. First, we coloured the

Skyscrapers.com (www.emporis.com/en), Skyscrapercity

buildings in the Hague Height of 50-70 metres, starting in 1969 and

(www.skyscrapercity.info) and The Hague Highrise

continuing until the present day. Then we gave a different colour

(www.hooghaags.nl). According to these sites, in 2001, the year

to the dots in the new height range of 100-140 metres, starting in

The Hague published its high-rise policy, the city already had eight

1998, the year the first tall building over 100 metres was completed

(rather prominent) buildings between 70 and 100 metres high, one

(Castalia, 104 metres). As a first step this looks promising, but many

building was under construction and three more buildings in this

of the dots remain uncoloured. This is because the height ranges

range were proposed. In the same year The Hague had only one tall

used in The Hague’s tall buildings policy explain only part of what

building over 100 metres, with three under construction and four

is going on in the city.

others proposed. How is it possible that this policy document is so off the mark? An official document like this must have been

If we want to develop a more comprehensive picture we should

reviewed by the city’s planning officers, external experts and the

first raise the ‘Hague Height’ to 80 metres, which encompasses

city council. How could they have approved it when it contains such

most of the buildings built before the mid-nineties. Next we have

inconsistencies? Or are the on-line databases mentioned above

to raise the upper limit of the other category from 140 to 150

incorrect? In fact, the databases do use different definitions of

metres, since the first building in that category, the Hoftoren

‘building height’: some databases take what we would consider the

(2003), is 142 metres and the designs for the new Ministry of the

true building height, the roof height; others take the structural height,

Interior and the Ministry of Justice buildings (planned for

the height that can be artificially increased by the use of spires or

completion in 2008) are both 146 metres. At the same time we

other ornamental elements. When faced with a choice of heights

can raise the lower value of that range up to 120 metres. A clear

we took the lowest value, the roof height, to be on the safe side.

frontrunner group of six tall buildings now emerges, with a dividing line between 110 and 120 metres that separates them from

Closer examination reveals some simple reasons why this policy

the rest. This leaves us with some remaining dots. We can account

document does not present a true and comprehensive picture. To

for these by assuming a third height category ranging from 80 to

start with, the document does not give a clear definition of high-

120 metres, which emerged in the late 1990s.

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Left

Scatterplot tall buildings in The Hague. Right

Height categories coloured.

Left

Height categories adjusted. Right

Third category introduced.

So, instead of two height categories (50-70 and 100-140 metres)

existing and planned tall buildings in the city and submit this new

we may in fact be dealing with three categories (50-80, 80-120 and

zoning to a similar test.

120-150 metres). Although the scatterplot analysis makes this idea look plausible, we would have a stronger case if we could verify this

To start with, we mapped the high-rise zones according to The

observation. The way to do this is to combine the building heights

Hague’s policy. Although the Hoogbouwvisie deals with two height

with the local topography and draw a map showing the location

categories, 50-70 metres and 100-140 metres, it uses four different

of all the tall buildings in the city and colour in the municipal high-

colours to indicate where tall buildings would be appropriate.

rise zones. This allows us to establish whether the current and

In our drawings we reduced this unnecessary complexity back to

future tall buildings fit into the zones or not. If not, we have to

two levels. This reveals that the city’s largest transit hub, Central

construct an alternative zoning based on the patterns of the

Station, is the core element in the zoning: a crescent-shaped zone

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Left

Zoning in The Hague according tot he tall building policy. Right

Tall buildings between 50m and 70m.

Left

Tall buildings between 70m and 100m and above 140m. Right

Tall buildings between 100m and 140m.

Left

New outline capturing the The Hague high-rise urban area. Right

Tall buildings between 50m and 80m.

Left

Tall buildings between 80m and 120m. Right

Tall buildings over 120m.

NovaTerra / jaargang 4 / nummer 1 / april 2004 / 39

around the station is suitable for buildings between 100 and

municipality wants to maintain a certain height range free of

140 metres tall. A secondary area adjacent to this high-rise zone

buildings: this would be the one. The 80-120 metres range is much

extends west to the city centre and south-east to the

less cluttered with buildings than the 70-100 metres range. Finally,

Beatrixkwartier. These secondary areas are suitable for buildings

buildings over 120 metres tall are tightly clustered around the

between 50 and 70 metres tall. Two ellipse-shaped areas mark

transit hubs themselves; we can carve out the adjacent high-rise

the strategic gateways to the city centre and can accommodate

urban areas to accommodate them.

buildings between 100 and 140 metres tall. In the end, it does not seem too complicated to devise a model tall building policy tot the test By constructing three simple maps we can put the The Hague’s

that describes what is going on in a city in terms of high-rise urban development. But it may look easier than it is. If we had not tested

tall building policy to the test. The first shows the 50-70 metre

our approach extensively for Rotterdam we would not have felt

high-rise zone and all existing and planned buildings between 50

confident enough to present the analysis in this article. Less than

and 70 metres high. The second shows the zone and the buildings

80 metres, 80-120 metres and over 120 metres is a division that

between 100 and 140 metres tall. The third shows all the buildings

works remarkably well in the south-western part of the Randstad.

that do not fit into either category (70-100 metres and over 140

It works better then the categories the cities themselves use.

metres). What do we see? safeguarding spatial quality First, the official policy fails to capture the developments in the

But is this all? The Hague municipal council has not developed

Laakhaven area near the Holland Spoor transit hub. A substantial

any criteria for safeguarding spatial quality and quality of life in

number of buildings in the range 50-70 metres have been built

the city. The Hoogbouwvisie leaves us in the dark on how to deal

here recently in conflict with the city’s zoning policy. The zone for

with matters like sustainability, the quality of architectural design

100-140 metre buildings does contain all existing and planned

or the relation between tall buildings and public space. Since the

buildings except one: Castalia. But these are just minor issues.

Hoogbouwvisie does not do a good job on building heights and

The real problem with the policy lies in the other categories:

zoning and does not present guidance on quality issues, we feel

buildings between 70 and 100 metres and the buildings above 140

that it will not be very effective at all. What the document needs is

metres. They should be absent in the city. The municipal council’s

a thorough update. Although we might have painted a rather grim

policy clearly states that buildings in the 70-100 metre category

picture, we do not feel we face a ‘mission impossible’. The tall

are unwanted because they disturb the skyline of the historic core,

buildings in The Hague are much more international, diverse and

and that the maximum height in the city is fixed at 140 metres.

beyond modernism than similar buildings in Rotterdam. They are

Consequently, the tall building policy does not provide zones for

also closely connected to the main transit hubs and to the city

these categories. But the reality is different. We find a very

centre and are not randomly located. Clearly, the city council must

substantial number of buildings in these categories, most of them

have strong policies in this area. But for some strange reason it has

concentrated in the current high-rise urban area.

not stated them in its policy document. Why not?

As a second test we can perform a similar analysis with the

For reactions: [email protected].

categories we identified earlier: under 80 metres, 80-120 metres and over 120 metres. But before doing so we felt it necessary to adjust the city’s zoning. We drew a new outline for the high-rise urban area by using as few angles as possible and enclosing the smallest possible area, while respecting the local topography and capturing as many tall buildings as we could. We wanted to define a simple but comprehensive zone. The result is two high-rise urban areas centred around the city’s main transit hubs: Holland Spoor and Central Station. These areas are Laakhaven-Holland SpoorStationsbuurt and Centrum-Central Station-Beatrixkwartier. We can adjust these new high-rise zones by locating the buildings belonging to the three height categories we want to put to the test. Buildings in the 50-80 metres range can be found throughout both high-rise zones – and there is no problem with this. Buildings in the 80-120 metres range are remarkably scarce. If the

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