Ett meddelande jag fick från en kompis. Det handlar om en artikel i det
nederländska NRC Handelsblad, 6 juli 1999, "Ten strijde tegen 's lands
saaiheid" (http://www.nrc.nl/W2/Nieuws/1999/07/06/Vp/04.html).

Så här skriver kompisen: "Regjeringen presenterede i går et nytt plan 
som forsøker å beskytte regionale identitet i landskap og hus. Nye 
byggprosjekter skal integreres i bestående landskapselementer og 
byggverk bedre enn før, og arkitekter skal hente deres inspirasjon 
fra tradisjonelle regionale byggmåter og -stil. Nederland blir for 
ensartet, for mange nye hus ser like ut i hele landet. At forandre 
dette er offisiell regjeringspolitikk nå."

[Senare från samma person:]

Here are a few excerpts from that NRC Handelsblad article (BTW: I did 
not have a good dictionary at hand...):

"[headline:] At war against the country's boringness

[bold:] Dutch cities and villages are too much alike. Landscape and 
city planners should emphasize regional differences, the government 
thinks.

By Mark Duursma and Bernard Hulsman

[text:] FORT RHIJNAUWEN, July 6th. [...] In their paper, which was 
published yesterday, the four politicians [ministers and state 
secretaries, HB] advocate a larger role for cultural history in the 
spatial planning of the Netherlands. Archaelogical rests, monuments 
and historical landscapes should no longer be shielded, but involved 
in spatial planning. With the past as a source of inspiration for the 
new way of building, it should be prevented that the Netherlands 
become to uniform. To recognise and use the cultural-historical 
[goddammit, how do you translate "cultuurhistorie" / 
"cultuurhistorisch"??!] identity of a specific region, that is the 
aim of Belvedere. A city district in Groningen should look different 
from one in Brabant, there should be more emphasis on regional 
cohesion. Van der Ploeg [the state secretary of culture who seems to 
have taken the initiative for the Belvedere plan]: "The way in which 
the Netherlands are shaped and arranged spatially is too important to 
leave it to engineers and project developers. Architects and 
designers should have a stronger say.
[...]
The plea for a better coordination of spatial planning to the 
regional cultural history is in accordance with existing practice in 
the VINEX districts, areas close to the big cities which have been 
assigned by the national government for the building of about 800,000 
houses. In almost all VINEX districts, which are currently under 
construction, architects and city builders have tried to incorporate 
existing elements of the landscape in the urban designs. In some 
plans, like that for Leidsche Rijn near Utrecht, this happened by 
using the existing 'green structure' as starting point for the 
design. Other plans, like Brandevoort near Helmond, point directly to 
the regional past. Brandevoort, designed by the Luxemburgian 
architect Rob Krier, is an attempt to revive the traditional North-
Brabantian village, including its varied but traditional houses.
[...]
"The paper is in agreement with feelings designers have had for a 
long time", Frank Evers, project leader at the Nederlands Instituut 
Ruimtelijke Ordening en Volkshuisvesting (Dutch Institute Spatial 
Planning and Housing) says. "But the national government is itself 
also responsible for the current uniformity. By assigning the present 
VINEX districts, project developers could buy the terrain in advance 
and build on it in a simple and uniform way. If the national 
government wants to promote regional identity for new buildings, it 
will have to let go of the central coordination. So I am curious what 
place the message of Belvedere gets in the Fifth Paper Spatial 
Planning [periodic national government plan for spatial planning]."