The Creative City – A Feasible Utopia? A Research about creative city planning in four Dutch cities. Masterthesis Human Geography Author: Rens van Loon Supervisor: Olivier Kramsch For: Fulco Treffers - 12N Nijmegen, 2008 Table of Contents Preface ............................................................................................................................................................. 5 Summary ........................................................................................................................................................ 6 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 9 1.1 The creative class and the creative city ................................................................................ 9 1.2 Formulation of the thesis ..................................................................................................... 12 1.3 Research objective(s) ............................................................................................................ 16 1.4 Research questions ................................................................................................................ 17 1.5 Scientific relevance ................................................................................................................ 20 1.6 Social relevance ....................................................................................................................... 21 1.7 Research design ...................................................................................................................... 22 1.8 12N STDNBW ....................................................................................................................... 23 2 About ‘creativity, culture, economy and the city’ .................................................................. 24 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 24 2.2 Creativity, culture and the ‘experience economy’ ........................................................ 26 2.3 ‘The Creative Industry’ and ‘The Creative Class’ .......................................................... 27 2.4 ‘The Creative City’ ................................................................................................................. 31 2.5 Creative city checklists’ and their critiques ..................................................................... 36 2.6 Concluding remarks .............................................................................................................. 37 3 Creative city planning in Dutch cities ........................................................................................ 39 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 39 3.2 Eindhoven ................................................................................................................................ 40 3.2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 40 3.2.2 Towards a ‘creative policy’? ........................................................................................... 40 3.2.3 ‘Creative city planning in Eindhoven’ – Strijp-S ...................................................... 42 3.2.4 Viktoriakwartier – A more ‘intimate’ approach to ‘creative urban planning’? 47 3.2.5 A creative’s viewpoint ..................................................................................................... 50 3.2.6 Concluding remarks ......................................................................................................... 53 3.3 Almere ...................................................................................................................................... 54 3.3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 54 3.3.2 Creative city planning in Almere .................................................................................. 56 3.3.3 A creative’s viewpoint ..................................................................................................... 59 3.3.4 Concluding remarks ......................................................................................................... 60 3.4 Tilburg ....................................................................................................................................... 61 3.4.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 61 3.4.2 Creative city planning in Tilburg - Veemarktkwartier ............................................ 62 3.4.3 A creative’s viewpoint ..................................................................................................... 68 3.4.4 Concluding remarks ......................................................................................................... 70 3.5 Dordrecht ................................................................................................................................. 71 3.5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 71 3.5.2 Creative city planning in Dordrecht ............................................................................. 72 3.5.3 A creative’s viewpoint ..................................................................................................... 76 3.5.4 Concluding remarks ......................................................................................................... 79 4 ‘Back to the model’ - assumptions and hypotheses applied to the investigated cases 81 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 81 4.2 Eindhoven ................................................................................................................................ 82 4.3 Almere ...................................................................................................................................... 85 4.4 Tilburg ....................................................................................................................................... 87 4.5 Dordrecht ................................................................................................................................. 89 4.6 Concluding remarks .............................................................................................................. 91 5 Recommendations .......................................................................................................................... 93 5.1 Recommendations in general ............................................................................................. 93 5.2 Recommendation for Viktoriakwartier ........................................................................... 96 6 References ....................................................................................................................................... 100 Table of Figures Figure 1: 'Branching' of the Creative Industry (Poort, Marlet & van Woerkens in Raes & Hofstede, 2005) ............................................................................................................................... 28 Figure 2: de Witte Dame , Eindhoven ................................................................................................ 41 Figure 3: Strijp-S Complex (Woonbedrijf 2007) ............................................................................. 45 Figure 4: Strijp-S, Future Vision ( www.skyscrapercity.com ) ..................................................... 46 Figure 5: Map of Strijp-S (Treffers, 2008) .......................................................................................... 46 Figure 6: Rough map of Eindhoven with location of Viktoriakwartier and Strijp-S (woon- werkgebied Strijp) ........................................................................................................................... 49 Figure 7: Situation of the city-parts in Almere ( www.l2n.nl ) ..................................................... 56 Figure 8: The four rings of the Veemarktkwartier (Masterplan Veemarktkwartier) ............... 66 Figure 9: Two possible designs for the Tivoli Garage ...................................................................... 66 Figure 10: Division of programme in outlines .................................................................................. 67 Figure 11: 'Creative Axis Dordrecht, Voorstraat-Noord represented in purple ...................... 76 ‘... City areas with flourishing diversity sprout strange and unpredictable uses and peculiar scenes. But this is not a drawback of diversity. This is the point ... of it.’ (Jane Jacobs, 1961) Preface With the completion of this thesis, my study Human Geography at the Radboud University also comes to an end. I must say it was a very pleasant and interesting time. A time when I learned a lot; not only about human geography, but also about myself and my own life. It was also a time when I met many nice people, some of whom became close friends. Further, it was a time in which I exchanged