In 2012, four years after the financial crises, the number of construction projects in Amsterdam had been reduced to a handful.
The housing construction machine had virtually ground to a halt, plans had been put on ice and in some areas more than 30 percent of offices were vacant. The crisis had left its mark. Land development rights were returned and the playing field changed. Banks had restrictions imposed upon them, while the central government pruned back housing associations to their core activaties: maitinging their currect stock and constructing new social housing. Offices fell away as the driving force behing area development. Financial crises management domniated long-term planning and construction dropped to approximately 1500 homes a years. But then, slowly but surely, new development forms arose, inclusing self builds, collective private commissions and temporary use of empty (building) plots.
By the time the economy had bounced back and investors returned in 2014, the population had gone up by 10000 people a year, jobs had increased by the samed number and tourism had been growing by 5 to 10 percent a year. The tide had turned for good. Instead of offices, new hotels were now the booming industry, and city development now focused on transforming existing office and industials areas with high vacancy levels as well as on developing innovation areas by driving an urban econamy of small-scale start-ups and hybrid work spaces. Old plans were updated to fulfil a need for fexbility. In no time at all, construction went up to 5000 homes a year, peaking at more then 7200 homes in 2018. It became clear that the limits of Amsterdam's Structural Vision 2040 would already be reached by 2025. The number of large scale cconstruction developments in and around Amsterdam has now assumed such proportions that it's becoming increasingly hard to keep track of the situation. This book aims to shed light on where we are, but also gain insight into the variouys forms of development plans currently underway.
In 2012, four years after the financial crises, the number of construction projects in Amsterdam had been reduced to a handful.
The housing construction machine had virtually ground to a halt, plans had been put on ice and in some areas more than 30 percent of offices were vacant. The crisis had left its mark. Land development rights were returned and the playing field changed. Banks had restrictions imposed upon them, while the central government pruned back housing associations to their core activaties: maitinging their currect stock and constructing new social housing. Offices fell away as the driving force behing area development. Financial crises management domniated long-term planning and construction dropped to approximately 1500 homes a years. But then, slowly but surely, new development forms arose, inclusing self builds, collective private commissions and temporary use of empty (building) plots.
By the time the economy had bounced back and investors returned in 2014, the population had gone up by 10000 people a year, jobs had increased by the samed number and tourism had been growing by 5 to 10 percent a year. The tide had turned for good. Instead of offices, new hotels were now the booming industry, and city development now focused on transforming existing office and industials areas with high vacancy levels as well as on developing innovation areas by driving an urban econamy of small-scale start-ups and hybrid work spaces. Old plans were updated to fulfil a need for fexbility. In no time at all, construction went up to 5000 homes a year, peaking at more then 7200 homes in 2018. It became clear that the limits of Amsterdam's Structural Vision 2040 would already be reached by 2025. The number of large scale cconstruction developments in and around Amsterdam has now assumed such proportions that it's becoming increasingly hard to keep track of the situation. This book aims to shed light on where we are, but also gain insight into the variouys forms of development plans currently underway.