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AMSTERDAM, A MODEL OF PLANNING

Amsterdam is the capital of the and is located in the province of Noord-, 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 and therefore it lies on land that has been reclaimed from the water.

THE GOLDEN AGE -

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 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 , (north of ), (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 belt in 1613. The functioned as a fortification and a was built behind them, where nowadays Nassaukade and Stadhouderskade are now located. Three large canals were dug in western direction:

1 , . They were connected to one another by transverse canals and 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 designed the grand Golden Age city hall, which will become later the Royal Palace of the Dutch royal family, located in square, the main square of the city. In 1675 the estimated population of Amsterdam reached 206,000 citizens. Only in , 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 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 . In 1773, the French declared war on the and entered in the Netherlands. The occupation of Amsterdam occurred in 1806: , 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 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 , inaccessible by the sandbanks of the , so in 1825 they built a canal, the 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 of the capital and the sluices of IJ muiden, a passage towards the . 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 . 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 . 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 of three canals.

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Particularly, Kalf’s plan proposed a ring of development around the cluster following, as 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 , 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 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 , and finally dykes (), 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 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- neighborhood, which has been also vastly studied by the 1903 first drawing board of Berlage’s plan concerning properly the urbanization of the area. Thanks to these tools the municipality, from now on, had the opportunity to control directly both urbanization in all its forms and housing construction. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century the city experienced an interesting expansion concerning the area of Spaarndaammenbuurt, triangle enclosed between the docks of the harbor and the railway line, working-class neighborhood from Kalf’s plan. The construction of the buildings was left to the revolutie bouwers (small developers who dealt with most of the social housing construction). Due to the building of the Amsterdam Centraal Station in 1881, and the extension of the harbor towards west in 1910, the northwest portion of the area was not urbanized. With the total application of the Woningwet in 1905, the architects in a first phase, and H.J.M Walenkamp and K.P.C. de Bazel later on, experienced a new way of making with social housing, the one which will be used by Berlage in his plan.

FURTHER IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MASTER PLAN

The 1910’s expansion of the harbor was the starting point of a new plan: the municipality decided to provide new neighborhoods and houses for the needier classes. The housing construction problem was carried out in a totally different way compared to the previous plan, and the new blocks were meant to clearly define the urban structure, with the creation of a square and location of public facilities and businesses. As a consequence, the period between 1913 and 1921 embody a big typological innovation: blocks’ corners were solved with the creation of different shapes in order to outline the meaning of the urban spaces which they are facing. The design played an important role as filter between external and indoor spaces, with a special monumental approach for the ones facing the square. It’s worth of consideration that the Amsterdam Zuid plan of 1921 greatly follows these principles and implementation methods.

6 THE BASIS OF THE BERLAGE PLAN AND SOUTHERN EXTENSION

Due to the 1875 project by Kalf, playing on an orthogonal system based on two directions, with the new expansion plan a geometrical problem came up: the junction of two direction axes, which was easily solved with the monumental construction of the , and the connection of this shape to a new development pattern. Here comes H. P. Berlage, considered to be the father of Dutch architecture: clean lines, honest use of materials and houses meant to be designed as an entity. His plan of 1916 concerned a small portion enclosed in the 1896 limits, approved in 1917, and an expansion towards south, carried out only in 1921.

The Amstel canal represents physically the rupture between the 19th century part of the city and the new southern expansion, called Niew Zuid. The main aim of the plan was completing the Oud Zuid in order to use it as a starting point for the construction of the Niew Zuid. In order to guarantee safety and the land stability, it was not allowed to leave empty and incomplete blocks. Berlage intentionally ignored the grid created by Kalf’s plan, creating a self-standing urban structure reminding to the canal order of the old city, surrounded by the Amstel kanaal.

7 THE NEW MASTER PLAN OF 1928 AND THE 1929 CRISIS

Because of the population growth a new plan was required to be comprehensive with the whole municipal territory and with a fifty years contemplation. The new Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan (master plan) was prepared in 1928, thanks also to the Amsterdam of the same year which helped the re launch of construction activity, starting to organize the new expansion according to the principle of separated functions and in continuity with the existing city, in order to realize 10000 new housing units. The settlement was fan-shaped, going from west to east and preventing the fusion of the new neighborhoods by using some green areas to divide them. The major expansion took place in the western part of the city, while the line dividing the old from the new was marked by the new elevated railway ring. Inside each component the infrastructures were organized as orthogonal grids, the first providing the connections between one neighborhood and one other and the second for internal viability. The new expansions were characterized by different building typologies and technologies, going from the single double-decker house to the twelve stories tower, and by a large number of open spaces, mainly small parks for free time, and a big park, which was very relevant for the urban development of the entire city. This way the old city became the core of this cluster of four different patterns: Amsterdam West - the garden city built by D. Greiner - Amsterdam Zuid, Amsterdam Oost - the area of , which main axis Hoofdweg-Mercatorplein was built in 1925 - and Amsterdam Noord - with the garden of Buiksloterham and Nieuwendammerham. All this cluster is enclosed by four main elements: the Amstel and the in the southern part, the IJ and the harbor in the northern part. Amsterdam’s economy flourished up until the 1920s. During the two following decades, the city suffered from the global economic recession. By 1930 the population of Amsterdam is nearly 757,000, there were efforts to build more houses to accommodate the fast-growing population. Unfortunately, the 1929 worldwide crisis caused a halt of the construction activity, some new projects were launched starting from 1933: the completion of the eastern sector next to Kennedylaan (1933-1939) and some monumental parts of the western sector, such as the eastern edge of Beatrixpark but the

8 latter was not fully completed until the end of the WW II. These interventions present a totally different style, because of the influence of the functionalist architecture movement, rather realizing serial developments and systematic application of blocks. In this period, after 1930, we can also notice a new building typology phenomena: the disintegration of the block, by means of central common gardens in the middle of the block, accessible also from the street in order to easily park bikes in it. This brought to the total abandoning of the block, in Amsterdam and many Dutch cities, allowing multiple storey buildings with the southern facade consisting of loggias and balconies, seen as an extension of the living room.

THE AUP (ALGEMEEN UITBREIDINGSPLAN - General Expansion Plan) OF 1934

In the AUP of 1934 made by the functionalist planner Cornelis van Eesteren, he identified four main functions of a city: living, working, recreation, traffic as the linking factor. The most important aim was to make people live close to their working place and provide recreational public spaces, as such as parks and sport fields, located in long galleries within the urban blocks, giving them great importance in the urban design. The plan was mainly implemented after the WW II: new neighborhoods were developed in southern and western directions according to the original plan, namely and . Also Amsterdam-Noordunderwent major expansions. Moreover, five garden suburbs were built in western direction, which are areas surrounded by open spaces: , Slotervaart, , and . The new neighborhoods were built around an artificial lake, Sloterplas.

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THE WORLD WAR II AND THE RESTORATION AFTER 1945

During World War II, Amsterdam was home for many Jewish families escaping from other Dutch cities which had been strongly influenced by the anti-Jewish policy adopted by the Nazis, finding in the capital a good hiding place. Unfortunately, German troops occupied the city in 1940, and more than 100,000 Jews were deported, almost completely wiping out the Jewish community. After the end of the war, Jews who returned from the concentration camps or emerged from their hiding-places were faced with neglect and sometimes outright hostility: this attitude brought to the destruction of Jewish identity and put them in a position of disadvantage. Possessions and buildings were given back with a really slow pace, mostly around 1950, while other forms of compensation and restitution only came much later in time, such as the final ones were made around the year 2000.As we have already seen, Amsterdam has always been dominated by a left-winged government, with the PvdA as the biggest party. Since 1946 the mayor of Amsterdam has always been a politician of the PvdA. The political wing of the Provos won a seat on the city council of Amsterdam, and developed the "White Plans". Generally the plans sought to address social problems and make Amsterdam more livable. The most important one was the ‘White plan’: the plan proposed the closing of central

10 Amsterdam to all motorized traffic, including motorbikes, with the intent to improve public frequency by more than 40%and to save two millions guilders per year. Taxis were accepted as semi-public transport, but would have to be electrically powered. The Provos planned for the municipality to buy 20,000 white bikes per year, which were to be public property and free for everybody to use. After the plans were rejected by the city authorities, they painted 50 bikes white and left them on streets for public use. Another noticeable one was the ‘White Chimney Plan’, proposing that air polluters be taxed and the chimneys of serious polluters painted white. Then the ‘White Wives Plan’: a network of clinics offering advice and contraceptives, mainly for the benefit of women and girls, and with the intention to reduce unwanted pregnancies. The ‘White Chicken Plan’, for the reorganization of the Amsterdam police - called "kip" in Dutch slang, meaning "chicken": municipalities would then be able to democratically elect their own police, in order to transform it from guard to social worker. And then the ‘White Housing Plan’: aiming to solve the city’s housing problems by means of banning speculation in house building, and the of empty buildings, envisioning as an open-air market. The ‘White Kids Plan’, proposing shared parenting in groups of five couples. Parents would take turns to care for the groups children on a different day of the week. The ‘White Victim Plan’, asking anyone who caused death while driving to build a memorial on the site of the traffic collision. In the end, the ‘White Plan’, a car sharing project proposed by Schimmelpennink featuring electric which could be used by the people. It was actually realized in a limited fashion as the Witkarsystem which was in use from 1974 until 1986.

POST-WAR DEVELOPMENT FROM THE 60’S

One of the relevant results of Amsterdam major urban expansion in the 1960s is Bijlmer neighborhood. The original project looked very impressive, with a series of identical high-rise buildings organized in a hexagonal grid. The project was meant to attract a large number of suburban population and the buildings had different characteristics in respect to the traditional Dutch ones. On the other hand the different functions were seen as separate activities and for this reason the new area was seen ad bland and

11 unattractive. Since few middle-class people wanted to live there, the original plan was not totally realized. From the 60’s many guest workers, mainly from Turkey, immigrated to Amsterdam and settled mainly in the Bijlmer and, after obtained independence in 1975, a relevant flux of Surinamese immigrants followed. The first connection by subway was created in 1977, especially connecting the new suburb of Bijlmer and the center of Amsterdam. In 1980 Queen Beatrix, the actual queen, has taken the head of state of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Michael van der Vlis introduced a system in his research ‘Macht voor de wijken’ (Power for the neighborhoods) in1972, in which he aimed to give autonomy to the existing districts within the city about building codes and urban regulation. When he became an alderman he had an important role in this important development. The areas Noord and Osdorp functioned as examples, when, after analyzing the opinion of the inhabitants in 1981, the results were rather positive. According to the citizens the municipality worked quicker, more effective and more efficient in implementing changes within their area. Therefore, in 1987, other four municipalities were realized, namely , , Buitenveldert and Zuidoost. Because of the success, ten more were realized in January 1990, namely , Oud-West, Oost, /Oostelijk havengebied, Bijlmeer, , , , Rivierenbuurt, Geuzenveld/Slotermeer en Slotervaart/Overtoomse Veld. After a couple of fusions between different neighborhoods in 1998 and the creation of the area called Centrum in 2002, Amsterdam was divided into fourteen different areas. More recently the city developed IJburg, an interesting project built on six artificial islands on the IJmeer, located on the east side of the municipality.

THE CONTEMPORARY AGE (FROM THE 90’S UNTIL NOW)

Nowadays the capital counts 790.044 inhabitants, with a percentage of 50,5% foreign citizens, compared to 20,6% of the total amount in the Netherlands. Amsterdam is the city that hosts the most different nationalities in the world, namely 177. Almost 65,000 inhabitants are from Morocco and around 38.000 Turkish live in the capital. Over 10,000 people are British, close to 6,700 are German and roughly 5,600 citizens have a Surinam nationality. Within the municipality of Amsterdam the city is divided into eight

12 different parts, namely Centrum, Noord, Oost, Zuidoost, Zuid, West, Nieuw-Westand . In which seven of those smaller ‘municipalities’ have an own controlling government, only the Westpoort is governed by the city itself. All the city areas have about 100.000 inhabitants, and are therefore, the size of medium sized municipalities. Within these regions the city is again divided into smaller neighborhoods. The province of Noord-Holland, where Amsterdam is located, left most of its power and important tasks to the municipality, in order to avoid a double control. In this sense, Amsterdam has to govern its own region giving it more responsibilities and less steps to undertake while implementing new plans. The divided areas are autonomous municipalities, so they’re responsible for most of the tasks and rights within their areas. As we previously saw, the governments are responsible for things like building and maintaining residential buildings; managing building permits for residential and commercial purposes; designing, maintaining and governing the spatial environment; control and support of institutions regarding health, sport, education, art and culture. Furthermore they have a fully independent administration and have the opportunity to control their own budget, given by the municipality of Amsterdam. In 2008 the municipality of Amsterdam did a research about the possibility to decrease the amount of regions in the city. As a result, in the beginning of 2009, the city did a proposal to reduce the fourteen different areas into eight. The municipality decided to start implementing the plan a few months later. On the first of may in 2010 the plan was realized and the amount of areas was brought down to eight regions. We can investigate this kind of organization studying more in depth the Dutch Model, an interesting planning system in the European reality. In the Netherlands there are three layers of government, namely on national, provincial and municipal level. Each level has independent legislative and administrative powers under the overall supervision of the central state and, therefore, can be described as a decentralized unitary state. Each level has its roles set out in the constitution and all levels are involved regarding implementing plans, while formulating their own regulation plans they are not allowed to be in conflict with a higher level. Provinces have elected governments and their role can be

13 described as one of intermediary and coordinator. Therefore they play an important role in economical and physical planning and environmental matters within their region. The responsibilities of municipalities are characterized by autonomy of action within their own areas. We already mentioned their responsibilities and autonomies, and the supervision of the allowed budget which needs approval of the provinces. The Dutch system is described as a comprehensive and strong one, in which the absence of flexibility is an important point of discussion. Therefore, Amsterdam (just like ), uses a special system. For example, Amsterdam owns 75% of its territory, and, therefore, has the possibility to acquire its land, service it and sell or lease it to private developers. This condition affects the relationship between the state and the private developers. Amsterdam is the financial and business capital of the Netherlands and it is also one of the reference points of International Business in Europe. Schiphol Airport, located south - west of Amsterdam, is an important element for both economical and infrastructural reasons. This is one of the biggest and most important airports in Europe, namely on the fifth position regarding the flow of passengers and on the third regarding cargo, a really important element in the Dutch logistics, the transportation of goods, which drives the Dutch economy. The , located in Westpoort, has the same function of transporting goods, though it cant compete with the capacity of the main harbor of the Netherlands, namely Rotterdam, which is the biggest and most important in Europe, together with the harbors of (Belgium) and (). Nonetheless, also many tourists during the year come to visit Amsterdam with cruise-ships using the Amsterdam Passenger Terminal on the IJ-river, located close to the central station. Amsterdam is building new projects in order to expand the capacity of the infrastructures. Therefore the Weststrandweg is being realized, a second Coen tunnel will be built and the Gaasperdammerweg and A10-Zuid is being enlarged. The city nowadays counts four subway lines, namely the Ringlijn (50), Amsteveenlijn (51),Gaasperplaslijn (53) and the Geinlijn (54). Only a small part of the network, between Amstel- station and Amsterdam Centraal, goes underground. In 2002 they started the construction of a new, fully underground subway-line, which will be ready in 2017: the Noord/Zuidlijn, connecting the northern and southern part of the city. After completing the

14 project in 2017 they expect 200.000 users a day, which makes it the most important infrastructural element of the city by far. Especially the connection with the business-district, the , is of great importance. The Zuidas has become the new financial and legal hub. The five largest law firms of the Netherlands, a number of Dutch subsidiaries of large consulting firms like Boston Consulting Group and , and the World Trade Center Amsterdam are also located in Zuidas. Many large corporations and banks have their headquarters in Amsterdam such as International, ING Group. There are also three other smaller financial districts in the city. First of all the area surrounding Amsterdam Sloterdijk railway station, where there are the offices of several such as . Also themunicipal public transport company (Gemeentelijk Vervoersbedrijf) and the Dutch tax offices (Belastingdienst) arelocated here. Other areas are the one contiguous to the Amsterdam Arena and the one surrounding AmsterdamAmstel railway station. In the , which is the core of the city, the house Royal Palace and theAmsterdam (AEX) is located. The latter is the worlds oldest stock exchange and one of thelargest bourses in Europe.The previous image is showing the development of the from the 13th century until now.

15 BORNEO-SPORENBURG

The Borneo Sporenburg residential area in the of Amsterdam is one of the most original and successful housing initiatives that was commissioned by a city and financed by a national government. Between 1996 and 2000, the two peninsulas surrounded by harbour landscapes and canals were transformed into a high-density area filled with 2500 dwellings inspired by Dutch architectural heritage and small village streets. The architectural firm West 8 was chosen to draw a strict masterplan on which would fit a large number of individual homes and a few apartment blocks. Over 100 local and international architects were involved in the design of the housing units; the result reflects a sense of local character and also fulfills modern household’s demands such as private outdoor space and parking garage. Borneo Sporenburg is the first experiment of its kind in the Netherlands. It offers compact housing and narrow streets that provide a sense of safety for children and families. Some houses facing canals have waterfront access, and several accommodate pedestrian and cycle traffic. A school and a house for senior citizens have been integrated to the area, while 30% of the dwellings are subsidized social housing. This model shows that social trends that are predominant in dense urban environments such as high/low income disparities, childless couples, and the lack of community life, can be reversed through the application of intelligent design guidelines and a customized approach to urban living that is culturally relevant.

Two peninsulas in the eastern part of the Amsterdam docks, were to be exploited for water-related activities, as well as 2500 low- rise dwelling units, with a density of 100 units per hectare. For a new interpretation of the traditional Dutch canal house, West 8 suggested new types of three - storey, ground-accessed houses deviating from the usual terraced house in being strongly oriented to the private realm by incorporating patios and roof gardens. By repeating this type in a great variety of dwelling modes and with maximum architectural variation, an animated street elevation emerges with a focus on the individual. At a larger scale, a delicately balanced relationship exists between the repetition of the individual dwellings, the roofscape and the great scale of the

16 docks. Three immense sculptural blocks take their place as landmarks in the vast expanse of houses. WEST 8 (1993/1996)

Description of the project: Drawing upon Dutch architectural heritage, West 8's plan for Borneo Sporenburg was inspired by villages on the former Zuiderzee, where small, intimate houses descend towards the water. Borneo Sporenburg masterplan was a residential brief of 2500 dwellings, set those two peninsulas as one planning area, dictating a high density of housing. In numbers the project, according the C.A.B.E, is described as: • Average density: 100 dwellings per hectare (the 600 dwellings in the three large housing blocks bring up the average density) • Number of dwellings: 2,500 for Borneo Sporenburg / 17,000 for the Eastern Docklands • Client: City of Amsterdam • Designer: masterplan by West 8; • The individual units were designed by international and local architects • Year: 1996-2000 The whole masterplan was divided into a variety of house types, distinctive apartment blocks and the waterfront, adding character at the Borneo Sporenburg housing development and make the neighborhood easy to navigate. The masterplan was designed by West 8, however, six architectural practices were also asked to conduct a study into dwellings with ground-level entrances, investigating the possibilities for developing good neighborhood areas with a pleasant environment.

Design Principals: West 8 successfully created a framework for high density living that satisfies all the demands of an ordinary household. They were committed to creating unique structures within a unified whole. In order to insure this, West 8 set design codes, a range of criteria, upon which access, parking, private open space, storey height, plot width and building materials would be designed. Those codes also specified that dwellings should be designed by a diversity of architects. Thus, more than 100 architects were participating; developing new housing prototypes and the resulting designs include patios, roof gardens and striking views of the waterfront.

17 On the masterplan design the Borneo Sporenburg plan is divided into low-rise buildings in three zones and architecturally distinctive high-rise residential buildings within these zones, creating significant landmarks. The design of the apartment blocks and the low-rise dwellings was specific to the scheme. Even more, this variety of house types, the distinctive apartment blocks and the waterfront add character to the peninsulas and make the neighborhoods easy for visitors to be navigated. The low-rise housing structures are arranged into strict branded blocks which are sub-divided into individual plots, each containing an inside void that comprises 30 to 50 percent of the plot. The idea was to drive daylight deep into the volumes of the houses, making smallish spaces appear larger and taking advantage of the water views, while maintaining privacy. Those dwellings have also a front door onto the street creating a street frontage and its own, exterior space. All private outside spaces as well as parking places are to be found within the plot. Car ports share the street frontage with the entrances, which are made by imaginatively designed porches, doors and gates. The final solution presents that by organising the dwellings in a compact system of plots and small streets, higher densities could be achieved

Use of the area:

The Borneo Sporenburg development is purely a residential area having an urban character with lack of local shops and facilities which may lead to increased car dependency and subsequent parking problems. However, the Amsterdam’s centre is only a 15 minutes bike ride distance. Problems, Issues and Thoughts: The development of Borneo Sporenburg was a complicated and difficult process. There has been considerable experimentation in the legal construction of New Deal and in the architectural and sense according to CABE. Choosing the urban planning proposal from West 8 was a choice for the new, for the unknown. Borneo Sporenburg project was about a dense urban space which would be inhabited by childless couples, singles and the extremes of high and low income, and a suburban edging occupied by middle-class families. The design also includes a

18 school and housing for the elderly people, embodiment all the society’s sectors and demonstrating that family housing is not unable to coexist with dense urban areas. Reflecting the nation's greater wealth, only 30 percent of the units are subsidized social housing and the rest are under market rates. Further to the initial thoughts on the design, West 8 wanted to have around a dozen architects design the most of the housing. Those architects were about to design rows of 5 to 12 units in order to avoid long and monotonous . However, after the first 250 units which were built, developers petitioned the city to limit the choices to only the six most popular unit types. The result is that some street fronts are lined with long, horizontally oriented structures rather than the fine-grained rhythm of vertical facades that West 8 planned.

Urban space: There is however less variety in the streetscape than West 8 hoped to achieve. The masterplan set strict but imaginative rules for the development, including guidelines for streetscape, parking, private open space, and storey height and plot width. The masterplan was based on a new approach towards single-family houses - generous private outdoor space, a secure parking space, safety and individuality. The apartment blocks in Borneo Sporenburg contain collective open spaces in the forms of courtyards or internal gardens.

Buildings and Public space: The building layout clearly takes priority over the roads and car parking layout. A range of car parking treatments are used in Borneo Sporenburg: the low-rise terraced houses have internal car ports, the apartment blocks have underground car parks and there is some on-street car parking. Streets are also well overlooked, due to the street frontage of the buildings, helping to make public spaces feel safe. Unfortunately, there is only a little public green space in the development as a whole, with the water surrounding the docks serving as the main public space, open to Amsterdam's boating culture.

As a conclusion this experience of the Borneo Sporenburg project

19 has had a significant impact on Dutch urban planning future.

References: http://www.amsterdamdocklands.com/navigation/Architectuur/Bo rneoSporenburg_main.html http://www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/borneo-sporenburg http://www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/borneo- sporenburg/description http://www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/borneo-sporenburg/design http://www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/borneo- sporenburg/evaluation http://www.urbandesigncompendium.co.uk/borneosporenburg http://www.west8.nl http://eng.archinform.net/projekte/6065.htm

20 Java Island

Java and KNSM Island were both created at the end of the 19th century as wave-breakers for Oostelijke Handelskade. Later they were enlarged and became part of the harbour docks. When the harbour moved away in the 1960s, the islands were deserted, and in the 1990s they were transformed into housing areas for ca. 2500 inhabitants. On Java Eiland, five architecture firms each designed an apartment building. These houses are distributed along the south and north quay according to a seemingly random pattern. In the four smaller side canals, younger architects got the chance to design smaller canal houses. In-between lies a green corridor, which is only accessible for bikes and pedestrians.

KNSM Island

In the 1990s the entire area was reshaped into a housing area, based on a 1988 blueprint by , his first big project. He envisioned a mixed use of the space, and planned "super blocks," big buildings containing lots of individual homes and apartments, along a central avenue, mimicking the organization of the island's former warehouses and storage buildings. The redevelopment of the island was part of a masterplan that would turn the entire Eastern Docklands into modern residential areas to allow the city to expand. Many of the old buildings on the KNSM Island were preserved by order of the city, such as the old cafeteria, the houses of the medical doctors, a storage building ("Loods 6"), a customs building, and the office of the Rijn Scheepvaart Maatschappij. While plans initially called for a rather exclusive neighborhood of home owners, the city mandated that a significant portion of the homes were to be built as rentals, to attract a more diverse population. Still, the island is known as a place for yuppies; the English paper The Telegraph called it "Dockland chic." Loods 6 currently contains artists' work spaces, a gallery, and an art exchange. The building, a showcase of 1950s design and architecture, also houses an exposition dedicated to the island's history. The former company park from 1956 was preserved and restored in 1994, with the help of original designer ; it was renamed in her honor to Mien Emerald Empire, by Jo Coenen. Piraeus, by German architects Hans Kollhoff and Christian Rapp (1989–1994). 304 homes in 150 different types, 95% of

21 which low-income housing.[13] Albert, by Belgian architect Bruno Albert, with a metal fence by Belgian artist Narcisse Tordoir.[14] Sky Dome, a twenty-story apartment building by .[15] Hoogland, by Swiss architectural firm Diener & Diener.

PIRAEUS

The master plan for the old KNSM island, one of several vacated in the Eastern port area of Amsterdam proposed a unique type of perimeter block along the south edge of the long, narrow island. Jo Coenen's concept of a large rectangular courtyard block with a round courtyard building inserted into the center was the beginning point for this building. The theme of cylinders versus rectangles was a theme on the island and included the perimeter block just north of the "Piraeus" block designed by Bruno Albert as well as Coenen's building in the ensemble, a round courtyard building at the tip of the island. While the perimeter block idea was retained, the presence of an existing three story building along the water required some modification of the cylinder and this idea was transformed through several design stages. In the final version, a 9 story wall along the interior street, tapers down to a 6 story wall along the waterfront, which then tapers to a 4 story wall which is folded past the existing building and slips under the wall along the street. This folding tapering notion leaves the original dock building as a freestanding historic artifact while providing passage from the street to the waterfront through the building. The folding/tapering also is a practical response to a south facing site and the excitement of the waterfront along the south edge of the island. The whole form of the block is thus sloped, tucked and folded back on itself to reduce the height of the south side of the building to allow more light to reach the interior courtyards and the dwellings on the south side of the north wall. The sloping roofs, and angular bends heighten the of a continuously folded form. Some details such as the windows that turn the corner at a fold, skylights in the sloping roof, and areas on the south wall where four floors tuck back under the upper floors which define the virtual edge of the block, and zones of planar glass surfaces such as the solariums along the north facade all contribute to this experience of a continuously folded monolithic form. The flush windows,

22 metal roof, and dark brick also reinforce the image of a diagrammatic three-dimensional drawing of an abstract geometric solid. In addition to the site strategy for dealing with the waterfront, the west end is cutaway in a four story high colonnade, designed by artist Arno van der Mark, which allows the space of the interior courtyard to extend out to the quadrangular space defined by two other existing structures. This garden was designed by Dutch landscape architect Mien Ruys

Piraeus contains 304 dwellings in a complex organization of flats, maisonettes and ateliers. The folded wings on the south contain mostly 2 bedroom flats. The taller north and end wings contain a complex mix of flats and maisonettes sometimes in a point access arrangement, sometimes in a gallery access type. Studio flats are found next to large ateliers and maisonettes and there are even apartment arrangements which allow doubling of dwellings to create a wide mix of types and sizes including some three story dwellings on the upper floors with skylights and large windows. Some dwellings have balconies, and, along the north facade in an upper part of the building, the gallery reads as a cantilevered glass element. The glazed balconies are a form of solarium which was applied by Hans Kollhoff and Arthur Ovaska before in some of the projects. Here the continuous glass of the living area opens to a balcony within the volume of the building. The balcony then has folding windows open by a thin slot at the sides so that ventilation can be controlled.

The entrances to the building read as cutouts in the dense, dark brick wall and principle lobbies which lead to interior elevators are rendered in Western Cedar a unique signing achieved by use of a contrasting, almost semi precious material. The wood detail is also used in the shops along the waterfront, another gesture to creating a place with special meaning. These shops are planned to run continuous along the south waterfront and should provide the activity and interest appropriate to this density. While the idea of a continuous commercial frontage would seem to be absolute here, the actual quay along the buildings is under-designed, without the paraphernalia necessary to accommodate the range of public activities that could be expected to take place here. The building typology required in the master plan may be of questionable value here. Even though the width of the island was

23 such that a single row of buildings along each waterfront would have left too much undeveloped space on the interior of the island, the perimeter block kind of building implies an equality of surface and an emphasis upon the interior courtyards that seems almost to defy the strong single orientation of the waterfront situation. While Kollhoff/Rapp skillfully adapted the block to a one-sided situation, the waterfront elevations are far more successful that the north facade along the interior street. Monolith that it is, Piraeus is not large compared to other linear buildings ( Karl Marx Hof in for example, is one kilometer long and contains about 1500 apartments and Erskine's Byker Wall could probably extend for the entire side of the island) and it is tempting to imagine that the folded and tapered south wall of Piraeus should be the prototypical image of how to build along the water. Compared to the more stringent programmatic requirement of most modernist housing models, Piraeus offers an exceptionally varied selection of dwelling types and one of the compelling ideas of this huge residential warehouse is that the dwelling program comes much closer to offering a match between dwelling tastes and opportunities.

MUSIC BUILDING ON THE IJ

Located at the head of Oostelijke Handelskade, the ‘Muziekgebouw aan’t IJ’ is the new home of two organizations devoted to modern and non-western music. Each organisation has been given its own architectural identity inside the new building by placing its concert hall in clearly separate volumes. Eye-catcher and unifying element is the gigantic roof. At its headend, the building features a large open space which functions as a public plaza. On the waterside lies a wide square with an outdoor café on the water. The 24 meter high glass façade provides a panoramic view of the river IJ.

IJ TOWER This seventy meters high, 20 stories apartment tower is situated on the dam towards the KNSM Island, in the former docklands, east of the centre of Amsterdam. The tower has a regular facade composition with a diagonal window pattern. Several 'holes' in the building give it a strong sculpturally and generate a variety of 20 different dwelling types. The tower has been sculpted differently

24 at each side. The building works as an orientating element in the new dockland area. The 3 stories plinth of the tower consists of a fitness club, roof garden, commercial retail spaces and a parking garage.

NEMO NEMO is a science museum for children, located on a small plot in the old port of Amsterdam. It is built on top of the IJtunnel, which connects Amsterdam Noord with the . Surrounded by water, the building has the shape of a ship’s bow and a green copper façade. The public roof is designed as a large grandstand and acts as a public piazza, offering a beautiful view over the old .

WESTERDOK ISLAND

Westerdokseiland is a peninsula between Westerdok harbour and Het IJ which used to house a railway yard. and was redeveloped into a residential area between 2007 and 2009. The master plan concept, designed by OD 205, consists of perimeter blocks with communal courtyards. The long narrow site was divided into four blocks between a straight quay along the west side, and a curving wall along the east side facing the IJ. A different team of architects developed each of the four courtyard blocks. The architects involved are among others: Meyer & Van Schooten, Architekten Cie en Heren 5 (La Grande Cour, 2007); and MVRDV and Jeroen Schipper Architecten (VOC Cour, 2009).

IJDOCK

The masterplan for the IJDock, a mixed-use complex of 89,000 square metres, was devised by Dick van Gameren and Bjarne Mastenbroek of SeArch. The process started with a volume of maximum size and height, which then was excavated to create individual buildings. Sightlines, views of the surrounding , transportation access and the on-water location influenced the design of the sculptural volume. Planning of the individual buildings was handed off to Claus en Kaan Architecten for the Palace of Justice, Jan and Ben Loerakker for the Hotel, and Zeinstra van Gelderen for the Water Police Offices, apartments and office spaces. A marina provides space for boat

25 slips and improves water-based travel and connectivity.

SILODAM

Silodam is one of a group of large residential slabs designed by the Dutch architects MVRVD between 1994 and 2007. This group includes three Amsterdam projects, WOZOCO housing for seniors (1997), Silodam (2002 and Parkrand (2007), and The Mirador (2004), a tall slab in the new Sanchinarro district of northern designed with the Spanish firm Blanca Lléo. All four of these buildings demonstrate a provocative attitude about the forms that new housing should adopt on dense urban sites, about the mix and kinds of “houses” that are needed in today’s housing market, and about the innovative use of new materials in housing construction. Silodam, named after the large grain silos already on the site, is built at the tip of one of the loading piers that extend out into the IJ River in the industrial area west of central Amsterdam. This reflective, polychromatic cubic block of apartments has become a new landmark along the Westerdok waterfront that contrasts sharply with existing buildings in the IJ maritime landscape. The project was originally offered as a limited competition with MVRDV and two other firms well known for their housing work, Rudy Uytenhaak and Martorell, Bohigas, Mackay of . As the mixed residential/commercial/public space program evolved, the commercial component was reduced so that the building now contains 157 “houses”—a combination of 142 privately owned and 15 rental apartments--600 sq. meters of commercial space beneath a large terrace on the east side of the building, a marina for small boats in the open colonnade at the base of the building, and two automated parking garages for 109 cars built inside the dock. The original dock was built for storing and loading grain. The two existing brick and concrete grain warehouses were built in 1896 and 1952. These two blocks have recently been converted to housing and form a group of large freestanding elements. Silodam continues this massing past the end of the pier but uses a completely different repertoire of details and materials. Various maritime metaphors have been used to describe Silodam. Most obvious among these is that it is a cruise ship being re-supplied at the Amsterdam waterfront, or that it is a container ship, or it is just another stack of the containers, like those that dot the IJ

26 landscape; a new version the same modular, polychromatic, stacked, multi-directional agglutinated organization, the marine version of a giant Lego construction, affixed to but at the same time detached from the end of the pier. The first impression of Siloam is that this is a glass version of the venerable unité type: a big rectangular volume organized repetitively and supported by an articulated base of freestanding columns. While it has the same 165m long 24m wide footprint, at 10 floors it is only about half as tall as a unité so the proportions are actually quite different, and it contains less than half as many apartments. But, this big volume dominates even with the great complexity and variety of the exterior details, and materials. The slab is zoned as 4 connected towers each with different plans. The use of a 5.4m module results in a consistent, repetitive organization. Three vertical stair and elevator cores service the four towers and the two middle towers share another. The service cores connect to a horizontal circulation network that changes in position from floor to floor and varies from a standard double-loaded corridor organization to gallery access types, which occur on both sides of the building, including skip-stop variations of each type. An important principle guiding Dutch housing since the 1980’s was to provide a range of dwellings types in all new housing design. The idea was to provide buyers with more choice of living arrangements. Following this principle, MVRDV designed fifteen different types of apartments for use in Silodam. The apartments vary in width from 20 to 50’ and in depth from ½ building width (double-loaded) to the full 24m-meter depth, and from one-story to 3-story (loft) types. This diverse range of dwelling types is organized into “neighborhoods” of 4-12 apartments that are organized vertically or horizontally as distinct groups or zones. This variety can be seen in the plans but it is a dominant characteristic of the exteriors. Different neighborhoods are legible on the facades and each is expressed with different materials, windows, and colors and results in a diverse display of dwelling possibilities and groupings within a single volume. Apartment types include flats, maisonettes, unité-type skip-stop maisonettes, overlapping dwellings, 2-story galleries, patio houses, three-story lofts, live-work units and includes varied public experiences such as the glass galleries on the upper floors and public corridors that are color coded for different

27 neighborhoods. Each dwelling has an outdoor space, a balcony, terrace, gallery, or patio and most have panoramic views of the dynamic nautical landscape of the IJ. The façades have the variegated quality of a modular stack of shipping containers or, a huge, polychromatic, three dimensional sliding tile game, perhaps the vertical version of the horizontal robotic parking machines used in the parking garages below the surface of the adjacent pier. These exteriors are a sampler of window and wall materials, details and colors. The basic transparent reflective qualities are established by the extensive use of glass but other materials include aluminum panels, reinforced cement panels, prodema wood panels, western red cedar, glass curtain walls, brick, painted profiled panels (containers), and painted steel. Operating windows in various sizes and configurations are mixed with zones of glass curtain wall and glass balustrades. The use of bright colors, orange, blue, white, red, terra cotta, and black, reinforce the polychrome imagery and form a spiritual connection to other MDRDV designs. Besides references cruise and container shipping, other precedents for Silodam include the legacy of Dutch functionalism that is certainly part of the DNA of Silodam but absent the relentless minimalism of earlier slabs like Bergpolder or Kralingse Plas. Inevitably, comparisons will be made between the unité d’habitation of Le Corbusier and Silodam. The most obvious difference between the two is the use of exterior materials, raw concrete and wood and glass infill walls in the unité as compared to the energy efficient glass and metal skin of Silodam. While the unité is a much larger structure and is not actually in a maritime setting, both buildings share the nautical imagery of a big vessel berthed to a pier and share attitudes about the articulated base, and pilotis, the repetitive exteriors, and developed roof. Both buildings have many different apartment types. The unité apartment type, (a version of which is used in Silodam), of course dominates the 337 unités in , however, 23 different apartments were used, even more than Silodam’s 15. In Silodam, however, a much more complex range of sizes and types are used in a variety of arrangements many of which, like the unité, have 2-story high spaces. The unité pays more attention to the north/south orientation with a zone of special units on the north façade, but Silodam matches this gesture by the sitting of the building at the end of the pier and the position of the Crow’s Nest

28 on the top floor of the north end, a two-story high community space looking out to the water. Roof gardens are used in both, but the much larger roof garden of Marseilles probably has no equal as a model roofscape although the patios and skylights at the 10th floor in Silodm are certainly a move in this direction. Individual apartments in both buildings have balconies or outside space. Interior corridors in the unité are all double-loaded, skip- stop as compared to the alternate positioning of Silodam and the great advantage of being able to circulate on the outside surface as compared to the experience of walking along an interior corridor. The use of color was an important design element with both buildings but with Siloam the use of color is taken to a whole new level, the brilliant, crystalline, skin even begins to assume the colors and reflective qualities of the maritime landscape it occupies Many of the original public spaces in the program were left out for financial reasons and the commercial space reduced by half. Public spaces that were included in the finished building include a marina for small boats in the open, colonnade in the central bays that allow views of the IJ through the building from the dock and a large open wood stair connecting to a colonnaded entrance deck and steps further to a raised wooden deck that extends out into the river overlooking the IJ on the east side of the building. The commercial spaces in the program are located under this deck that is left empty. The galleries that alternate in position and height also read as public spaces on the exterior. The beautiful apartments within and spectacular views from Silodam define a surrealist experience at the windswept end of a barren “strekdam”, a veritable “machine for living” but, living a life that is curiously disconnected from the city. There were not many options for parking. The amazing machine within the dock manages the cars but at the expense of any reasonable public space on top of the dock, a few parking spaces and the glass elevator porticos for the cars. In the absence of a more expansive program, projects like Silodam, and even the retrofitting of the two old grain elevators, will languish as examples of an incomplete urbanism. Even a line of the ubiquitous boats that seem to eventually line all of Amsterdam’s waterfronts would enliven the edge of the dock and add a layer of domesticity to the public spaces.

29 Passenger Terminal Amsterdam (PTA)

The newly built passenger terminal for cruise ships was one of the first new projects completed as part of the regeneration of Oostelijke Handelskade. The terminal is used by shipping companies and their passengers for the greater part of the year. Outside the cruising season, it functions as a venue for events, exhibitions, fairs and conferences. The 24 meter tall building is largely clad in glass. The transparency of the building is such that cruise ships moored in the IJ can be seen through the building from Oostelijke Handelskade. Conversely, passengers in the seven thousand square meters terminal hall enjoy a broad view of the city. The building’s wavelike shape hints at the water of the IJ and gives the building a nautical ambience. Since thousands of cruise passengers land here annually for a visit to Amsterdam, the main idea of the design was that the building should be a clear junction point between the water and dry land. This function will expand in the future to that of a multimodal traffic node, complete with jetties for water buses, car and coach parking facilities, a taxi rank and a stop for the IJtram. (ARCAM/TJ)

Oosterdokseiland

Oosterdokseiland (Dutch: "Eastern Dock Island") is an island that forms a neighborhood of Amsterdam, just to the east of Amsterdam Centraal railway station. The island was created in 1832 by damming it off from the IJ. In the 1960s the main Amsterdam post office was built on the island, which was torn down in 2005 to make way for the existing new mixed-use development which includes the Amsterdam Public Library (main branch), Amsterdam Conservatory, a flagship location of Enterprise Rent-a-Car (main branch), a DoubleTree by Hilton hotel, a Saturn electronics megastore, multiple residential complexes, and about 65,000 square meters (700,000 sq ft) of office space, including the headquarters of navigation system manufacturer TomTom. At a unique location in Amsterdam, between the old town and the IJ-lake and next to Central Station, The Oosterdokseiland (ODE) is situated. Here, more than 200,000 square feet of modern

30 architecture with a special mix of functions have been realized: housing, offices, a hotel, a library, a conservatorium, shops, bars and restaurants. For this dynamic place HVDN/Studioninedots designed a residential building with restaurants and a department store in the plinth. The building was recently completed and is characterised by a ‘chasm’, the specific shape of the apartments and the luxurious finish.

VINEX

In 1990/1 the Dutch government issued its "VINEX" report on spatial planning, which proposed the building of 455,000 new houses between 1996 to 2005. Of these, 285,000 houses were to be built around cities in suburbs, with the stipulation that they should: - be compact in order to preserve the countryside - be close to existing cities to keep car travel to a minimum - be developed around existing or new public transport - be close to shops and employment opportunities. The national government provided financial incentives to local and regional authorities, including €3.2 billion for transport and traffic investment. The VINEX program provides a number of valuable lessons to other eco-development initiatives, such as being an example of good coordination between different levels of government to facilitate a smooth start, through regional panels of politicians and officials. The VINEX program also shows clear partnership working by negotiating with private developers on the sale of plots, and setting up multi-disciplinary project teams that cross professional boundaries

31 ENTREPOT-WEST AMSTERDAM / 1991 / RESIDENTIAL /project title & metadata PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

At the end of the 1980s, plans to completely transform the islands in Amsterdam's Eastern Docklands into a residential area began to make real headway. Accomplished with verve, the PRO- scheme for Entrepot-West is in fact a radical correction of the model proposed by the local planning authority of a gigantic rectangular block straddling the water. The main thrust of PRO's plan, an amended version of their invited competition-winning design, is to the harbour basin in two places. One bridge, Entrepotbrug, is an undulating six- storey residential wall snaking across the water on stilts to the mainland. The other is a road bridge (part of J.C. van Eesterenweg) accompanied by development and accessing the eastern islands from Indische Buurt. 'The result is a residential building with the length of an intercity train and the height of an ocean liner. At last we have a sign of mutual acknowledgement between harbour and railway, after a century's indifference to one another.

Along Cruquiuslaan and Borneolaan, parallel to the harbour, stand less-tall housing blocks, as if left - overs of the quadrangle originally proposed by the planning authority. On either side of the winding ribbon pairs of urban villas occupy courtyards along the quays. A tall residential tower block next to the road bridge, the so-called 'water tower' of Entrepot -West (1991-1997) also care of atelier PRO, nails the entire scheme in place on the distinctive dividing line between land and water. Older features such as the customs building and the gate to the former cattle market along Cruquiusweg, are drawn into the plan to stitch the new-build to the existing texture of the city.

FUNEN PARK Just west of Amsterdam’s city center at the barren land of a former railway station marshaling yard the municipality of Amsterdam planned to built a new urban quarter. A quarter, that in contrast to so many Dutch residential neighborhoods, with their traditional lay-out of streets, pavements, parking spaces, front- and back gardens, should be landscaped differently. LANDLAB

32 took this challenge and proposed to leave this traditional layout and to conceive the area around the sixteen newly built apartment blocks as one, continuous courtyard. A luxurious courtyard that was not to be split up in any way. Implying that all parking areas had to be built underground and, more controversial, that all private gardens had to be omitted. Departing from this idea architects designed an open parkland consisting of just three main ingredients: grass, pavement, and scattered trees. From these ingredients the pavement got our particular attention as it allows residents and passers-by to wander freely through space and to make Funen’s outdoor space distinct from its surroundings. To achieve so it has been designed an intensive network of paths made of two specially designed pentagonal concrete paving stones in three shades of grey. These were laid down in a random fashion which resulted in a directionless, rugged pattern that looks like an unidirectional stretched fishnet from above. The widened meshes in the west result in an oblong shaped zone of open park space, which forms the transition zone between the open Funenpark and the enclosed Czar Peter neighborhood in the west. The meshes of the net consist out of grass planted with scattered groups of Robinia pseudoacacia and odd daffodils. The transparent crowns of the Robinias go well with the architecture and their bright green color contrasts nicely with the brick and glass facades. The daffodils add a splash of spring color to the otherwise green landscape. Several initiatives such as the introduction of plant pots along some of the facades further enliven the informal park setting. The simplicity of combining three ingredients resulted in an outdoor space is experienced as continuous and as such binds together landscape and architecture. The quarter now forms a distinct stepping stone in the connection between Amsterdam’s city center and the new neighborhoods in the eastern harbor area, but above all, offers an unique dwelling to its residents. LANDLAB

33 THE SHIP

The most important architect of the style was Michel de Klerk who in one apartment block called Het Schip (The Ship) established all principal aesthetical solutions of this style. The School of Amsterdam style was largely influenced by expressionism. The buildings were often built in round and expressive forms, with towers, ornamental spires and decorative windows and doors. The walls of the Amsterdam School houses certify to the craftsmanship of its builders; constructed from many sorts of differently profiled bricks, despite its decorations remain simple and clean in their form. The usually figurative sculptures were integrated into these brick buildings. Wrought iron elements, usually painted black or very dark green (Amsterdam green), were used as simple decorative or functional elements. Elaborate but sober in its expression carpentry, usually painted white or again dark green, completes the buildings.

NOORDKOP SPAARNDAMMERDIJK

(This project is winner of Prize 2007) Located at the pivot between the old Spaarndammer and the new scheme for residential islands in the former docklands area , this apartment block forms the decor for what is going to be a lively public space. Most of the dwellings in the project are intended for the social sector. It was a challenge to devise a simple access method, and the outcome was the mini- gallery or "gallerette". All the apartments, as well as the car park and the courtyard garden, are served by a single lift. The wide, partly open gallerette is situated on the northeast side which is exposed to traffic noise. The apartments have kitchen/dining rooms on this side. The living rooms, which have generous balconies, are on the rear facing into the collective courtyard garden. A visor-like screen of sculptural brickwork in front of the illuminated -coloured facade turns the building into a luminous landmark at night.

Sloterdijk Station

In recent decades, stations at international level have made a transformation of simple but effective transfer machines to

34 multifunctional and multimodal area centers. In the Netherlands this process in recent years gained momentum especially with the arrival of the trains High speed. Stations such as , Rotterdam, Amsterdam and are currently undergoing important changes, which in addition to expansion and adaptation of the stations on the High speed trains, a huge quality leap is realized. The functionality of these public transport nodes is greatly enlarged. The stations are transformed into modern and well equipped business hubs. Representative field centers that act as modern meeting places. Sloterdijk is a major multi-modal public transport node and the western gateway to Amsterdam. For travelers coming from Schiphol Airport is Sloterdijk literally and figuratively is the window on Amsterdam. The new Sloterdijk Station is an important urban link, and the throbbing heart of the area, where 35,000 people come in future work. The renewed Sloterdijk will be an important impetus to the development of a high quality urban station area, the Teleport area, and close in a natural way to the developments in the station area. It is a transparent and orderly station with a powerful and unified architecture that contributes to the new identity of the Teleport area. The atmosphere of the new Sloterdijk station is friendly and warm. In the station and Orly Square there is ample space for (indoor) gardens that greatly contribute to the ambience and experience of the station but also an integral part of the climate concept. They provide for the regulation of in the terminal and they serve as ecological sanitation. Rain and wastewater is collected and purified in the (indoor) gardens using plants and microorganisms. Through information and the possibility of fulfilling these tours open to the public gardens, an educational function. Together with the wooden roof and wooden floors, a cozy ambience in which the traveler in a natural way is called a warm welcome. MVSA Architects

35 DE DAGERAAD

These workers' dwellings for the socialist housing association De Dageraad ('The Dawn') were designed by the two leading exponents of the Amsterdam School, M. de Klerk and P.L. Kramer. Built with a council subsidy, they satisfied all the imposed conditions - a maximum of four levels, staircases in direct contact with the open air, the greatest percentage of space for the living rooms, and so on. Though Amsterdam School architects in particular were often brought in to embellish facades of standard housing blocks, in this case the floor plans, too, are the work of De Klerk and Kramer. The complex consists mainly of three - and four-room units which meant for its new tenants a considerable improvement in living standards. This and the even greater attention paid their exteriors were largely due to the untiring support of socialist alderman Wibaut in the face of accusations of extravagance and unnecessary embellishment of the facades. His bust forms part of one of the street corners. De Klerk's main contribution was the housing on two squares, Th. Schwartzeplein and H. Ronnerplein. The dwellings are assembled in groups separated by deep recesses in the roofline. De Klerk's work here is a lot less busy and exuberant than that at . He also designed the frontage along P.L. Takstraat. The Z-shapes created by staggering the groups of dwellings and linking them with a plant box at each entrance, lend the street walls a dynamic quality. Kramer was responsible for the housing on Burg. Tellegenstraat, W. Passtoorsstraat and Talmastraat. The most impressive feature is on the corner of P.L. Takstraat, where undulating vertical planes rise up sheerly from the stepped curves of the front facades. The two schools terminating the ensemble on the Amstelkanaal side were designed by Amsterdam Public Works. All entrance sculptures are by . The Coöperatiehof (1925-1927) was likewise designed by Kramer.

36 AMSTERDAM ZUIDAS

This project involved a large amount of office space development. A number of the office blocks were already mostly built, not according to a plan but opportunistically as a result of firms seeking convenient space outside the crowded core. They went up with little relation one to another. Many were bold architectural statements, but the area as a whole was incoherent, cold, and unfriendly to pedestrians. The ambitions of the planners were to retrofit an existing single- use area so as to create an urbane, multifunctional space. The challenge was particularly daunting because this district was divided by a multi-lane expressway and railroad tracks that precluded pedestrian traffic and prevented design coherence. The proposed solution was extremely expensive — a 1.2 kilometer tunnel to accommodate both the road and railroad tracks. Amsterdam Zuidas was already the largest office development in the Netherlands with 248,600 m2 (2.7 million square feet) built or under construction. The national government envisioned it becoming an area that would allow Amsterdam to compete with Paris, , and for functions. It has excellent access to both Schipol Airport and the city center. In the early 1990s the two large Dutch banks ABN-AMRO and ING were seeking modern office space; they wanted easy auto access and wished to evade the community controversy inevitable if they built high-rise in the central city. The municipality responded with a plan for the area due south of the center that included housing, retail, educational and cultural facilities. Only the office structures were built, however. Now the municipal government, with financial participation by the central government, was seeking to realize the vision of a multifunctional scheme. The project incorporated a larger role for the private sector in providing infrastructure than had previously characterized Dutch projects. The plan was to use the vehicle of a public–private partnership with the very expensive covering of the rail and highway right-of-ways to be financed by the private sector. Sixty percent of the costs would be borne by the private participants, who in return would receive development rights for one million square meters in the newly created space. The public portion involved the city, provincial and national governments. The current master plan called for the creation of 1.1 million

37 square meters of office space, 1.1 million m2 of apartments and half a million m2 of facilities, to be built over 30 years. It would also include a campus for the Free . Seventy percent of the housing would be market rate, an unusually high large proportion for Amsterdam, although the target of 30% social housing would be considered high elsewhere. The commitment to this type of office center on the urban periphery follows the trend pioneered by Paris in the development of La Défense and London with Canary Wharf. Essentially these old European cities were unable to offer modern office accommodation within their cores without extreme injury to the historic fabric and strong citizen opposition. The decision to shift the economic center out of the core, however, changed the character of the inner city of Amsterdam, causing it to shift toward entertainment, tourism and small business functions, and away from being the main center of production. Amsterdam suffered from an oversupply of office space, and, as indicated above, banking consolidation could jeopardize occupation by financial institutions. Requirements imposed on the private sector included contributions to public space and facilities that would not produce any financial return and might be more onerous than developers were willing to risk. The site was expected to offer the principal station outside the center for high- speed rail; but also its actual arrival lay somewhere in the future. Amsterdam Zuidas did not provoke much opposition (Majoor 2007). There were a number of open public meetings to discuss the plan, and its mixed-use conception reflected popular sentiment. On the whole, however, the project did not attract much attention—nobody lived there. Here the land was a greenfield site occupied mainly by sports clubs, which were awarded alternative locations. Amsterdam Zuidas pointed to the difficulty of gaining citizen involvement in planning when the project did not impinge directly on people’s lives and when the future occupants of the site were as yet unknown.

ZUIDERHOF

Due to the deep plot, the ING II building is designed in two parts. The standard offices are housed in the high-rise building, and the low-rise building contains special types of space such as a

38 restaurant and a conference centre which can also be used separately into the evening. The two buildings are linked by a double-height entrance foyer, which is mainly constructed from glass. This entrance foyer also forms a natural barrier between the secure office zone and the other types of space mentioned above. This entrance foyer has a saw-tooth roof, with the glass facing north and the closed sections clad with zinc. The required number of parking spaces is achieved by building a half-sunken car park on two levels. In order to keep the parking spaces out of sight, we decided to raise the level of the entrance by one metre. This raised level slides over the lower parking floor, with the upper parking floor connecting to the entrance level.

http://www.rotterdam.nl/urbanplanning http://usj.sagepub.com/content/45/7/1485.short https://www.amsterdam.nl/gemeente/organisatie/ruimte-economie/ruimte- duurzaamheid/ruimte-duurzaamheid/making-amsterdam/ http://www.slideshare.net/silviasanasi/amsterdam-a-model-of-city-planning http://citybreaths.com/post/40011703127/amsterdam-morphology-a-history

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