Traditional Tools for Recording Recent Heritage 
31 
Kuipers 
tunge were located on 
ith smaller clusters of 
-e eager to erase these 
ers, such as safety for 
)nly a minority kept a 
ited that over 10,000 
national defence line, 
: history and typology 
evaluating the current 
:ases covered by sand 
• abroad (some useful 
plies, reinforments of 
Dmparing maps of the 
and more recent ones 
;ing maps, pokres and 
P forms and a model 
acted by professional 
- no longer complete 
l with the individual 
;o-called Regelbauten 
;d, based on our MSP 
ts of the Atlantikwall 
.). Especially the high 
i we want to keep one 
amateurs, although a 
l, the remnants of the 
the pre-war and war-time heritage, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Defense and a private expert. Almost all existing 
airfields in The Netherlands (both civic and military) had been occupied and re-used by the German airforces during the war, because 
of their strategic value and relative easy acces (though the marshy soil gave problems for heavy aircrafts). In the beginning of the 
‘40s, the conquered airfields were provided with clusters of reinforced barracs, airship hangers of different types (e.g. Deisel, 
Junkers), canteens and tarmac airstrips. Remarkably enough, the dozens of accomodations were laid out like the farmhouses in the 
local villages and detailed in a German interpretation of the Dutch regional styles, with brick outer walls covering the inner concrete 
walls (of 1 m thickness) and sometimes camouflaged by painted windows. 
Today, many of these hidden examples of‘Great German architecture’ are affected by plans of radical rebuilding or demolition and 
there was a serious risk that they would disappear without any form of documentation. So, the NFLA started a campaign for legal 
protection and our Monuments Act prescribes that all accepted applications submitted by acknowledged historic societies give a 
preliminary protection for the eligible buildings until the Minister of Culture (in practice the NDC, after consulting the owners, 
municipalities and provinces) has decided about definite legal protection (or not). Because of this rule and the continuous military 
use, the practical organisation of the Quick Scan is different from the Atlantikwall inventory project, but the selection criteria have 
great similarities. 
Based on our previous inventory experiences and on desk research, a small team of experts made a sort of‘longlisf in order to select 
those airbases which deserved further inspection: twenty in total. In addition, a typology and evaluation system was drewn up, paying 
attention to the following qualities: 
- original function 
- significance for civic and military avaiation 
- historic military function during the war 
- current recognizability of the strategic situation, lay-out, function of the ensemble 
- idem, of the historic infrastructure 
significance of the related buildings because of special architectural value, contruction, function and/or typological rarity. 
Although the Royal Dutch Airforces were not very pleased with the idea of future protection of their properties, they were very 
cooperative to enable the necessary inspection visits: they provided us with lists of all relevant buildings and they drove us around 
the outstretched areas from one complex to another and to take pictures (only in a few cases photographing was not allowed, for 
military reasons). These pictures were combined with small maps, roughly indicating the location of the buildings and very brief 
descriptions and a genral introduction of the history and significance of this war-time heritage, followed by a recommendation which 
examples deserve legal protection. 
As the name indicates, the Quick Scan cannot be but a rough survey, but it is an important step to enable future research and a more 
thorough documentation. 
accommodate the air 
g World War II, built 
farm house style' to 
nowadays in use as 
air force for decades 
ipers, May 1999) 
d after the war, after 
nilitary function, the 
2 interested in future 
rports of Amsterdam 
not so much historic 
chap). Both airfields 
gs already have been 
cations by the Dutch 
rbases with regard to 
CONCLUSION 
During our inspection visits we discoverd some amazing structures, giving new insights about (military) architecture and technology, 
and it became clear for us that fieldwork is essential to enlarge our knowledge about the built heritage, even if it is of a rather recent 
period. We concluded also that quick documentation with traditional tools can be more effective, or easier realised, than the use of 
technically more advanced instruments, because in our dynamic world the recent heritage needs to be recorded before it is either 
disappeared or radically rebuilt. Last but not least, it is important to stimulate collaboration and international exchange of knowledge, 
not only between historians and surveyors, but also between decision makers and users. 
REFERENCES 
E. Adriaansz and B.Laan, Huis Sonneveld, Modern Wonen in 1933, Rotterdam 2001 (NAi Publishers) 
H. Ambachtsheer, Van verdediging naar bescherming, de Atlantikwall in Den Haag, The Hague 1995 (Municipality of The Hague, 
VOM-series 1995-1) 
C.A. Cooke and D. Sharp (eds.), The Modem Movement in Architecture/Selections from the DOCOMOMO Registers, Rotterdam 
2000 (010 Publishers) 
Cultuurhistorie van Kennemerland, Cultuurhistorische Waardenkaart Noord-Holland, haarlem 2000 (Province of Noord-Holland) 
Cultuurhistorische Verkenning Van Nelle-complex te Rotterdam, Zeist 1998 (Rijksdienst voor de Monumentenzorg) 
Directives for the national/regional registers and the new international selection of the buildings, sites and neighbourhoods of the 
Modern Movement, Eindhoven 2000 (DOCOMOMO) 
M.C. Kuipers, Recording the recent heritage in the Netherlands, in A. Cunningham (ed.), Modem movement Heritage, London and 
New York 1998 (E & FN Spon), pp. 66-73 
K. Loeff, Quick Scan Historische Vliegveld-complexen (1910-1950), Laren/Zeist 1999 (unpublished report in the library of the 
Netherlands Department for Conservation) 
Monuments of War, The evaluation, recording and management of twentieth-century military sites, London 1998 (The English 
Heritage) 
Th. Prudon, Will the Eagle fly again? Saarinen’s TWA Terminal in danger, DOCOMOMO Journal 25, July 2001, pp. 24-27 
R. Rolf., Der Atlantikwall, die Bauten der deutschen Küstenbefestigungen 1940-1945, Osnabrück 1998 (Biblio-Verlag) 
http://www.docomomo.eom/register:fiche