If there were an Interactive Mapping Hall of Fame, Bert Spaan’s Netherlands Building Age map would undoubtedly hold a place of honor. In 2013, Spaan achieved the monumental task of mapping 9,866,539 individual building footprints across the country. By utilizing a vibrant, data-driven color palette, he created a visual standard that not only captured the public’s imagination but also inspired a global wave of building age maps.
Now, Spaan has released an improved and updated version of the map. The new Netherlands Building Age Map has expanded to include all 11,333,878 buildings in the country, incorporating every structure built since 2015. While the map follows the original methodology – coloring buildings by their year of construction – it introduces a new feature: a dedicated highlight button to isolate the 1,467,339 buildings added to the Dutch landscape since the last update.
Users can click on any individual building on the map to view its exact year of construction and its unique BAG ID, which includes a direct link to the official national registry of buildings for a deeper dive into the data.
The map offers a beautiful visual history of Dutch urban planning. I encourage you to explore which Dutch cities still retain historic medieval centers – and trace the passage of time from these crimson-colored centers out to the cool blue hues of their modern suburbs and the most recently constructed developments.
