Every design for Dronten

In the flat, open heart of eastern Flevoland, Dronten stands on the railway between Lelystad and Zwolle, with the straight lines of the polder running out towards the horizon on every side. It is a planned town. The first ideas for the municipality date from the early fifties, building began soon afterwards, and the first residents moved in while the streets were still new. Planners once imagined ten small villages around a central town, as in the Noordoostpolder; growing car and moped traffic cut that down to three: Dronten, Biddinghuizen and Swifterbant.

That position in the middle of the polder explains much of the character of the place. The land is wide and the skies are big, and woodland such as the Wisentbos stands out against the fields. While the town was being built, workers found the wrecks of Second World War aircraft in the ground; the Vliegersmonument remembers their crews. Biddinghuizen, within the same municipality, is home to Walibi Holland, and most of the world's velomobile makers are based in Dronten.

Anyone who grew up here remembers wide horizons and cycling against the wind between the villages, and this map draws those same straight roads.