LL Living Landlust Social Comforts Expanded Research March 2016 Name: Jannick van ‘t Ende Student Nr: 4340558 E-Mail: [email protected] Studio: Heritage & Architecture Housing Amsterdam - Koningsvrouwen van Landlust Tutors: Lidwine Spoormans & Wido Quist What is most notable in Landlust is the strong change in the residents, over RESIDENTS OF the past decades it developed into a community with a lot of non-western SOCIAL COMFORTS, LANDLUST cultures. However the past years show that this group is on the decline again in Landlust, this means the area becomes more diverse. The increase of sold property also brings people with a stronger social-economic position to the CREATING COHESION neighbourhood, adding to the diversity. Even though there is a big shift in the culture and origination of the residents the configuration of the families remain similar. About 52% lives alone, 21% This document is set up to investigate the social problems in the is a couple without children, 17% a couple with children and 8% is a single neighbourhood of Landlust in Amsterdam-west and how to create parent in 2015 (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). The numbers show that the urban green to improve social structures. residents of Landlust are young with an average of 33,8 years and is expected to remain so until 2025 (35 years), the average for the whole of Amsterdam is INTRODUCTION 39 years old. This also explains the high amount of starters and freelancers in Landlust and the surrounding areas. The theme that has been selected for my graduation project was that of The tourism sector of Landlust is small but is growing rapidly, especially in the PROBLEM comforts within architecture. In the first part of my thematic research I’ve number of restaurants and other hospitality functions. The industrial plot next STATEMENT looked into climatic comforts and the qualities of spaces for comfortable use. to the project across the Willem de Zwijgerlaan is developing into a new hub As the project progressed these two pillars alone were insufficient to solve for business with among other functions; student housing , leisure, hotels and all problems in the project and neighbourhood. Landlust is a neighbourhood retailers. with a great and ever increasing diversity of cultures and social standing which brings up its own issues. To tackle these problems and come up with adequate In the report residents were also asked what they thought of the their dwellings solutions the research should be expanded into the realms of social comfort APPRECIATION and the urban area surrounding it. In Landlust the rating for the dwellings is and the design of public spaces, for this is where all these cultures come into OF LANDLUST relatively low as they appear to have complaints about nuisance by neighbours. contact with each other. There are many social issues within the neighbourhood They also don’t like the appearance of the buildings and there is not enough ranging widely from the general dissatisfaction with the urban green to social maintenance. The same can be said about the public spaces, and while the exclusion of ethnic groups and above average health issues. The goal of this ratings have been going up over the past years it is still below average. This report is to conclude what problems exist and how these can be solved in the accounts for both the green spaces as well other public spaces such as squares. new design. A short brief with design recommendations will be the resulting For Landlust as a whole the rating is 6,8 as opposed to the average of product. Amsterdam which is 7,4. People also consider their neighbours less involved with the neighbourhood as the average (5,8 versus 6,3). Both aspects did SOCIAL PROBLEMS & QUALITIES IN LANDLUST improve in the past decade though; in 2005 the area was rated a 6,1 and the involvement a 4,9. The percentage of residents that feels unsafe in their own In the analysis of Landlust done in the first research the spatial qualities of the neighbourhood is above the average as well with 34% as opposed to 28% SOCIAL neighbourhood have been investigated. What the social qualities and problems (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016). SITUATION are however have not been outlined. To illustrate for the social situation as a frame of reference the most relevant information for the project will be given, Problems the dwellers would solve first according tot the research was: this information is taken from an analysis by the municipality of Amsterdam Trash on the streets and public spaces (Gebiedsanalyse 2016 Bos en Lommer Stadsdeel West, Gemeente Amsterdam). Hanging youth Dog mess LL LIVING LANDLUST 2 3 SOCIAL COMFORTS LL The overall health of the residents of Landlust is below average in many THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT FOR THE URBAN GREEN HEALTH IN aspects. They more often face problems with an average or poor health than LANDLUST the rest of Amsterdam (29% versus 25%) and also have more physical ailments The striving for creating social cohesion by using urban green has been a topic and limitations. This also goes for the youth with ten-year-olds also being WIJKGEDACHTE discussed for a long time. The urban plan of Landlust is typical to the rising overweight more often than other areas of Amsterdam (31% versus 23%) modernist ideas that came up around that time, Van Eesteren used new ideologies which is reflected in the fact that less children join a sports club (56% versus in his general expansion plan that later were formulated as the ‘wijkgedachte’ 69%). As for physical health there are actually fewer people that are extremely (Geyl, 1947). This idea is a blueprint for how people should live and how society lonely compared to the average (7% versus 11%) but the group of residents should function around them. People before us have always lived in smaller that feel socially excluded is bigger (13% versus 9%). This can be explained by communities that needed less rules, this is why he argues that neighbourhoods the large amount of cultures, with under represented groups feeling excluded. should be self sufficient and form the ideal scale for this microclimate. The living environment would have to be divided into different layers around the house of AMSTERDAMS PLAN FOR LANDLUST residents with daily needs such as grocery stores and primary schools and other more infrequent needs can be more centralised. All these points that were named before have been used and translated into an In the urban plan of the project these ideas are represented by the stores that MUNICIPAL agenda for the area of Bos en Lommer for the period of 2016-19. The agenda are attached to the buildings facing the Willem de Zwijgerlaan. These stores are AGENDA used three main themes in order to solve the most problems that are now in the currently not used anymore or specific stores that attract clients in a large area. area. These main themes are youth, poverty and social exclusion and physical This backs up modern claims that the wijkgedachte is an outdated principle, and economical redevelopment. For youth the main goals are improve the people have become more indivualistic due to new technologies and are way climate in which they are raised, offer more attention to healthy living and their more mobile due to modern transports. This added to their freedom in choosing overweight, preventing further polarisation, discrimination and radicalisation. their desired stores and functions, making it harder to design these specific These are all golas that van easily be reached in the realm of the public space provisions for them in a space. and its greenery. For the second pillar the municipality wants to invest in a self For Landlust in specific the target group changed immensely as well, adding to sustaining community based on volunteers and caregiving for family and friends. the change of demands too. The change from a homogenous groups of working A communal green area can create a better social cohesion to promote this social class residents to diverse ethnical and social groups asked for new facilities and cohesion by joined activities and local volunteering to keep the public spaces provisions but they are currently still the same as eighty years ago. The main clean. This stimulation goes hand in hand with the third pillar, such projects could issues in the commercial facilities are caused by this wide diversity, women stimulate new sustainable development of the public space and businesses alike. started working, children play outside less than before and people use facilities Other activities that are named by the municipality are safety, art and culture, in different time frames. diversity, space for social initiatives and local prticipation of residents. (Gemeente Amsterdam, 2016) The wishes for public greenery changed as well, before open space was used PUBLIC GREEN on initiative of the user and they gave their own interpretation of the space. SPACES However there are infinite kinds of other distractions nowadays and people apreciate it if the space is more defined and suggests a use. This relates to the division between public and private spaces, there are clear rules for public space and for private space. But when a space is designed poorly and this border becomes vague conflicts may occur between users of the space. In this same way the public realm can be used to help integrate different groups in a community, this does not mean intensive contact but rather the knowlegde of eachothers existence. LL LIVING LANDLUST 4 5 SOCIAL COMFORTS LL BENEFITS OF REDESIGNING THE URBAN GREEN Not only is urban green good for improving quality of life it can also reduce People need parks because a good park provides a place for rest, relaxation stressful situations and crime rates in an area.