AMSTERDAM, a MODEL of CITY PLANNING Amsterdam Is the Capital of the Netherlands and Is Located in the Province of Noord-Holland
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AMSTERDAM, A MODEL OF CITY PLANNING Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands and is located in the province of Noord-Holland, on the south bank of the river IJ where it found its origin in the 13th century. Most of the city’s territory is below sea level and therefore it lies on land that has been reclaimed from the water. THE GOLDEN AGE - 17TH CENTURY The Golden Age, in the 17th century, was of unprecedented prosperity for Amsterdam, therefore this epoch was crucial for the city’s development in the future and it is explanatory for the limited impact that Industrial Revolution had in the Netherlands. Furthermore, since the 17th century a tradition of freedom and tolerance has been present, thanks to the settlement of the leftwing government, which will rule on Amsterdam for the rest of its history: Catholics, Protestants, Jews and ‘free-thinkers’ could live together in a coherent way and could stay true to their own beliefs and different opinions. One of the most important elements in the success of the Dutch trading culture was the foundation of the VOC (Verenigde Oost- Indische Companie) in 1602. Given this extreme economic growth and possibilities, the increase of the population in Amsterdam was impressive. Though, there wasn’t only an immigration towards the capital because of economical reasons but also because of social reasons. Already in the beginning of the existence of Amsterdam, the city was characterized by a mixture of different people and especially in this period acquired a distinctly cosmopolitan character: protestants from France, Flanders (north of Belgium), Brabant (south of the Netherlands) and many Jews moved towards the capital in search of tolerance and freedom of religion. The city, that around 1570 counted less than 30.000 inhabitants, in 1620 reached 100,000 inhabitants. Therefore the city developed rapidly and underwent a significant urban expansion, namely the construction of the first canal belt in 1613. The canals functioned as a fortification and a wall was built behind them, where nowadays Nassaukade and Stadhouderskade are now located. Three large canals were dug in western direction: 1 Herengracht, Keizersgracht Prinsengracht. They were connected to one another by transverse canals and streets leading to important nodes in the city center. By means of the plan by the municipal engineer Jacob Bosch in 1662, the houses and offices of well-to-do merchants were built along the main canals, planned to be elegant and wealthy, discouraging polluting businesses to be developed. In 1648, the architect Jacob van Campen designed the grand Golden Age city hall, which will become later the Royal Palace of the Dutch royal family, located in Dam square, the main square of the city. In 1675 the estimated population of Amsterdam reached 206,000 citizens. Only in London, Paris and Naples lived a comparable amount of people. Therefore, again a physical expansion of the city was required. In 1700, in the surroundings of the existing canal belt a working-class neighborhood called De Jordaan was realized in western direction. THE DECLINE OF THE 19TH CENTURY Between the very end of 18th century until the early 19th century, Amsterdam had to face an epoch of decline. Two facts led to this situation: the English Maritime Wars and the French blockade by Napoleon I. The first were fought mainly at sea, with a detrimental effect on trade. In 1773, the French declared war on the Dutch Republic and entered in the Netherlands. The occupation of Amsterdam occurred in 1806: Louis Bonaparte, Napoleon’s brother, became King of Holland and transformed the city hall into a Royal Palace, which it still is today. As a result, the stock and shares of the VOC decreased. During this period Amsterdam experienced an economic recession, reflected by the stagnation of the demographic development. In 1810 the population declined to 180,000 inhabitants. In 1810 the occupation by the French ended and the house of Orange took back the power in 1813, officially turning the country into monarchy. MODERN HISTORY (19TH-20TH CENTURY) 2 From this day on, a period of expansion for the city of Amsterdam occurred. In order to take benefits from these expansions, the city had to provide a modern harbor, inaccessible by the sandbanks of the Zuiderzee, so in 1825 they built a canal, the Noordhollandsch Kanaal but, because of a too small width, it had not the expected effects. In order to fix the problem they built a second canal, the Noordzeekanaal, executed from 1865 to 1875. Since 1876 the Noordzeekanaal functions as a direct connection between the harbors of the capital and the sluices of IJ muiden, a passage towards the North Sea. With its east-west direction, it was enlarged many times during the years and it reached the length of 24 km, the width of 235 meters and the depth of 15 meters and can be considered to mark the starting point of the city’s modernization, making the harbor one of the majors of Europe. Thanks to the positive effects that industrialization and the development of colonial commerce had on the Netherlands, new trading relations and routes were realized and new types of industries were created. As a result the population doubled from around 250.000 inhabitants in 1850 to 510.000 in 1900. Especially from 1870, the industrial Revolution started to influence the city. In 1839 the first railway-line of the Netherlands was realized from Amsterdam to Haarlem. These reasons clearly led to a physical expansion of the city. In fact, in 1874 a law allowing districts to be built outside the confinement was approved. In this period there was a considerable migration from the countryside to the city so that the several construction projects were implemented to face the expansion. Therefore an expansion of the city was needed again, so Amsterdam realized a plan for the city expansion, resulting in the 19th century belt created by Jan Kalf in 1875. JAN KALF’S PLAN OF 1875 This had been implemented by Kalf’s plan of 1875, first extension project since the building of three canals. 3 Particularly, Kalf’s plan proposed a ring of development around the cluster following, as street layout, the irrigation grid of the pre- existing rural plot subdivision. Furthermore the plan abandoned the radio centric form, extending orthogonally in two directions. It only concerned the street layout, leaving to private real estate developers the possibility to manage by themselves the building construction, which acted for a really small house production (20 sqm per family), phenomena called “alcove housing”. Then, because of the population growth, the densification process increased until in 1868 some private companies tried to solve the situation by means of new buildings, but the amount was inadequate in relation to the extent of the problem: an intervention of the public authorities was strongly needed, which happened only from 1896 onwards by the construction of public housing and decision-making policy in order to halt land speculation (following English model). By means of the 1901’s law of housing 4 (the ‘Woningwet”) and its immediate implementation the government intervened through development plans and land expropriation in favor of social housing. In spite of these measures in 1924 there was still a lack of 15.000 houses: 10% of the population continued to use the ‘cellar houses’. BUILDING CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES AND LAND CONDITIONS AFFECTING CITY PLANNING Typical Dutch technical constraints in city planning have given a particular aspect to land problems in Amsterdam. The land problem is created by the fact that Amsterdam is situated below the sea level, so the proper existence of land, before buildings, depends on a technical intervention. By means of drainage, polders and finally dykes (dams), land can be obtained. Obtained land was first cultivated and only in the period that we are talking about used also for construction: dykes need to be watched over for at least five years before the construction of buildings and then checked by the municipality periodically to guarantee the safety. This means that decisions on building construction are taken out of private hands. Difficulties encountered in making land usable encouraged the concentration of buildings, because their concentration guaranteed stability. In Amsterdam, due to this kind of interventions, the canals create a very clear urban structure, allowing an economical and logical distribution of the space. The traditional building typology used until the beginning of the 20th century is also simple, with the use of local materials, bricks and wood. The famous narrow houses which characterize the city have this width because they are perfectly as long as the span of a timber beam, and they are divided one from the other by 10m long bearing walls made of mud and sand, with piled foundations. Those kind of building are used for each kind of function, housing, retail, and so on - even small scale industry – except for some public buildings which were built in stone for a monumental effect. Their stability depended on the stability of the neighbors. This kind of construction requested the municipality for several controls, and it’s the main reason why the application of the 1901 law of housing had such an easy and fast application. Furthermore, the municipality took some extra measures in order to facilitate it, as such as control of land preparation and 5 implementation of schemes. In 1896 Amsterdam had a strong dimension expansion: from 3250 to 4630 hectares, thanks to the annexation of the Nieuwer-Amstel neighborhood, which has been also vastly studied by the 1903 first drawing board of Berlage’s plan concerning properly the urbanization of the area.