I accidentally went through Houthavens when I visited a conference in Amsterdam. It was 8am and everyone was outside with their kids, chatting with each other. I have never seen a new development that was so vivid. And so many people have access to a canal. Truly stunning place!
Same! I accidentally went through it when going to Theater Amsterdam. I was amazed by how it looks and feels. It was not immediately obvious that it was a fairly new neighboorhood. The only only thing that gave it away was the construction equipment lying around. But I was amazed with how much greenery there is!
I first came across your channel through the "Let's Build the Perfect City" video and just wanted to say that you convinced me completely on how we can build beautiful new neighborhoods and districts for our cities. You have an amazing channel and really good insight and I wish you the best going forward!
@@hylje The more you build desirable spaces the lower the prices will get if it's more of the norm or that demand starts to dwindle because so many people are now living in these desirable neighbourhoods. The price dropping will take time but it can happen.
As nice as Houthavens is... the plans are from the 90s when they thought the "city would be finished". That's why it has relatively low density. You can see a similar thing in Oostelijk Havengebied which was developed at the same time (but then also got built at that time and not around 15 years later). It's nice enough, but too much lower density single family housing. The least they should have done is put more "portiekwoningen" there, basically two single family homes on top of each other like you can find in many other older Amsterdam neighbourhoods. IJburg, also designed in the late 90s, was supposed to be much bigger and have a proper metro rather than a light rail line that's often at capacity like it is now (with only half of the housing of the entire project being finished at this time). IJburg Haveneiland was supposed to have a third more residents which would have made commerce on the island itself more viable too. It's now considered a little boring. When Strandeiland is getting built they're planning to put all those people on an isolated island onto the same single tram line? Yikes. Sidenote; the reason why Houthavens is not more comercially mixed use is because they didn't want to cannibalize the commerce in the existing neighbourhood next to it which was struggling in the 90s to be attractive. Back then they thought these areas were "far away from central areas" and nearly suburban which is why they were built that way. They were designed to be an alternative for families leaving the cities to Almere (actual suburbs). Yet 10 years later the tide turned because the cities were cleaned up from the rough 80s and city living became trendy again. Right now with the housing shortage we're in, those areas outside the ring are quickly redeveloping and seen as very desirable as most places inside the ring have become very expensive. The scope of what's considered centrally located has changed a lot. Luckily the city is not making the same mistake again and is building higher density in the areas they are redeveloping around the motorway ring. Like in Houthavens all the buildings with "individual facades" are all incredible expensive houses being sold for around a million euros (not an entire "house", just an apartment in them). But to its defence... Stettineiland is NOT a gated community lol. You walking past the front years proves that. It's also not designed by "young architects" but by two architecture firms. If you saw gates at the entrance it's to prevent cycling and driving through the pedestrian streets. As far as rich enclaves go, this one has car lifts to the underground parking garage which is sort of cool. That way we at least don't have to see the SUVs.. An important thing to note though is that the city of Amsterdam owns a majority of all their territory. It leases it out to its users. That means the city has a tradition of redeveloping land itself. It designs the neighbourhoods itself (either hires architects and urban planners or do everything in-house, depending on the decade) according to its political values of the time (usually that is rooted in social democracy). That's why all newer neighbourhoods in the coming years will be mixed 40 social housing 40 "mid market rental" and 20 "market" housing. Designing entire neighbourhoods in one go is how most new Dutch neighbourhoods have been built since the 1930s (but has its roots to even the city planning of the canal ring). Dutch modern architecture in Amsterdam is generally very good though. WIth social housing looking spectacularly good so that you wouldn't notice it being such and even modern buildings. You're proving this point by not noticing (or at least mentioning) that the buildings on Karlskrona-eiland (Theme G) and Revaleiland (Theme F) is mostly social housing as well (note that at 8:48... the social housing is on the right and free market housing on the left). Newbuilds using traditional brick is fortunately very common in the city, and isn't specific to Houthavens. The reason why ornamentation generally not seen in modern Dutch Architecture (though I must say Amsterdam architecture is much better than the national and neighbouring countries' average) is because of general Dutch architecture philosophy, basically parroted around at the Technical University of Delft. Also, Pontsteiger definitely is part of the project. It was drawn up in the masterplan. That doesn't keep the architect of the masterplan to publicly rail against highrises elsewhere though lol. The current policy of highrises is that they will be built along the IJ river and along the motorway ring and some other suburban spots that will transform into a regional focal point. This way they'll be the best connected and offer the most value (views, relation to the older parts of the city, public transit already established, not interfere too much since these areas have more sparingly used space). I'm happy to answer more questions.
@@hylje No thanks, we don't need every neighbourhood to be gentrified for yuppies. The city needs social housing and less of these expensive apartments for expats.
I live in this neighborhood, it's also important to note that it's part of the bigger plan in Amsterdam to develop the old industrial seaport areas. It started around 2000, eastern of the center (java-eiland), and has also reached the North (Old Shell-tower area, NDSM), and will probably be expanded, because there is a huge demand for housing. And of course, areas near water are usually quite popular for various reasons.
My son (a student from Delft University in his final year) is lucky enough to be one of the first residents of this new neighbourhood. He shares the appartment with two friends; they have a shared living room/kitchen but each have their own bathroom. Just one of the interesting new concepts of 'living together while still having your private space'. A large communal room is under construction in the building. Meant for parties, a couple of exercise bikes, having meetings about shared interests (they're speaking of buying a boat together with their co-residents😊) watching a game on TV together, play table tennis and what not. Very interesting to watch how it's developing. Thank you for sharing your insights! 🖖
@@bunch_of_numbers It's less than an hour. Most of his colleges he can follow online and it's only for a couple of months or so. He just jumped at the chance of getting this appartment. The 'normal' waiting list for an appartment is now over twelve years. Guess he didn't feel like waiting that long. 😊
@@bla5102 True. But not in quite this way where the housing company gives all three students their own shower and toilet and they only share the front door, kitchen and living room. At least, it's the first time I 've heard of that this was done on purpose. And please don't apologize! Your input is valued. 🖖
I live near to this neighborhood, and I like the Houthavens a lot. In general I don't like boxes, but this is the best that boxes can be. I like Art Nouveau and Art Deco. There is a bit of Deco in the Houthavens. One thing you may have missed; there used to be a very busy road in between the Houthavens and the Spaarndammerbuurt next to it. Now there is a park instead! Where did the very busy road go? It went underground!!
Many cities in The Netherlands have done this, in many city centres new developments must have a (red) brick outer wall for example. Some flats where I live have the style of an old flour mill they are built next to. I have also seen something similar in Austria and Germany where new modern buildings have old looking features. Best example is near Zaandam near Amsterdam where several large modern buildings have been built in the style of local traditional wooden houses. It is sad that in some regions native styles and materials seem to have completely disappeared while they were often gorgeous and definitely worth keeping. Especially in Asia and Africa where many modern city centres just look ...... unremarkable. But it is all politics, really. What you need is a local council with enough power and backbone to tell developers to $%$@^& off if they can't follow local style rules.
Funny that you mentioned Zaandam! While filming this, I stayed at the Inntel hotel up there. My thoughts about the area were mixed. I liked that it’s Dutch inspired, and found it to be friendly towards pedestrians and cyclists. At the same time, it had a “Vegas feel” to it. I couldn’t agree more with your point about Africa and Asia. Late industrialization is detrimental to a city, and those continents have without a doubt suffered the most.
If you tell developers to go away, you’ll have to contend with an unequal housing market that tells ordinary people to go away because you refuse to build enough homes to house all of them.
@@hylje Plenty of developers can abide to style rules it seems. It is not really different from building codes. Even for social housing is not a problem. Local property owners as a rule like this as well, a better looking area is good for property prices after all.
Maybe people like old cities because the houses were build for many generations to come, and therefore they made an extra effort and expenses to make it look good. Still I don't like the architecture in Amsterdam's city centre, the canal houses, by themselves. But all together with their diversity, it's a really pleasant environment that looks good. I think a lot of good architecture that is pleasant to be close to and not just admire and photograph, is about ratio's. Height width ratios of windows, of the whole building, height of building vs street. If that somewhat matches you can have a lot of different buildings next to eachother giving it a very human scale and amusing the eye, as in having to look and take all the different shapes in rather than 'getting' the whole building in the blink of an eye Not that I don't like post modern architecture, it can be breathtaking, but also be alienating, more to admire than pleasant being in the midst of it.
it's so beautiful to see a new city quarter taking inspiration from the older parts of town and not just be filled with copy paste modern blocks!! would love to live there! would be cool to find a way to build like this everywhere!
I noticed in Alphen aan den Rijn they also overhauled a little part in the city centre, also building the buildings in this old Dutch/Amsterdam style. It looks so neat
Glad I subscribed a couple months ago. Truly quality content, you show inspirational and informational stuffs and go out of your way to make these. Keep it up!
Wow! As a Dutchie, I've never heard of this neighborhood before. I love that there is so much variety, but it still fits nicely with the other surrounding neighborhoods. We need more well-designed neighborhoods like this all over the country, because newly constructed neighborhoods are starting to look the same, with little diversity these days. It's not as bad as other countries, but could definitely be improved. Thanks for the detailed video!
Goed ontworpen? We hebben gigantisch woningtekort hier in Amsterdam en dan maken ze een miljonairswijk (elk huis staat voor minimaal 1 miljoen op Funda). Dat is toch niet meer van deze tijd, zoveel ruimte innemen voor de allerrijksten. Dit had volgegooid moeten worden met appartementen.
@@exs88 Dat het een lage dichtheid heeft is inderdaad een minpunt van deze wijk, al heeft dat ook weer voordelen. Ik had begrepen dat het plan voor deze wijk al in de jaren '90 was genomen toen er nog minder druk stond op de woningmarkt. Maar los daarvan, als je kijkt naar de architectuur, de variatie, de aankleding van de leefomgeving, is dit wel een geslaagde wijk, zeker als je kijkt naar wat ze tegenwoordig elders bouwen.
Awesome video! I went to high school next to the residential area in the houthavens (2016-2022). It was super cool seeing how the area changed over time and experiencing it in real time! I'd walk around the neighbourhood every so often, and each time there was a new surprise :)
Great case study. The Dutch really know how to do these things well. I think Island 1 is my favourite one. Seems like a really go reinterpretation of past designs, with a modern flavour, but not in a cliché/pastiche way. The only things I'm not so sure about with this development are it feels like there's not enough commercial/retail units and no visible public transport, which makes it seem a bit quiet. But maybe that's a bonus when you're so close to the centre of Amsterdam? I'll have to visit to get a proper sense of the place.
As mentioned this development is not only relatively close to the city center but also a stone's throw away from Spaarndammer quarters, a mixed residential area with all everyday amenities available. It could do with some more mixed use I guess but considering Amsterdam's flexible zoning policies it looks promising. Not that I could afford to live there...
Yes it’s a quiet neighborhood and it does not have direct acces to high quality public transport. It’s really a family oriented, almost suburban, single use neighborhood. In that sense, it’s nothing new. What makes it unique is the architecture and design of the public space
I live in the center of Amsterdam right now and I can confirm "not enough commercial units" seems like a huge plus to me right now ;) Im esspecially done with restaurants that stock their kitchen at 07:00 in the weekend 😄 Also lack of public transport is less of a big deal when you take in account that everybody here has no problem cycling a bit to a near bus/metro/tram/trainstation
@@timba1181 Good to hear a local perspective! Yeah, deliveries to commercial units at unsocial hours can be annoying, so I hear you. I guess you could restrict the types of commercial available.
The lack of commerce was a deliberate decision as to not 'cannibalize' the shopping street in the nextdoor neighbourhood. Its character was to be mainly residential. This neighbourhood does have a hotel, public school and a community center though. As for transit, there bus lines. But the plans are to redevelop an even larger area to the east and north of this neighbourhood that would be built extremely car light. So there are plans to extend a tram line to this area and also close the 'metro ring' from nearby Isolatorweg station to Central Station with a stop on the edge of this neighbourhood.
I used to live in Westerpark just around the corner from Houthavens until fairly recently, so it's nice to see it almost completed now. I've watched its development since the start (never ceases to amaze me how quickly the Dutch build!). I just wanted to give you a very well deserved handshake. That was a fantastically put together piece and very informative/so well researched. If you come back, make a trip to the opposite side of the northern part of the city in the east and go visit Ijburg. Its a similar blueprint, but some of the modernist architecture there is absolutely beautiful.
Amazing video man, the only thing I may disagree with is the fact that a lot of the stripped down facades in modern buildings is the fact that modern architects have an obsession of being different and not copying the past. And since the past is well known for ornamentation the architects decide to either make the building weird or oversimplified.
They dislike ornaments because they were taught to dislike them by their professors who were under influence of Bauhaus school and Le Corbusier. So architectural classes are still stuck in 20th century modernist mindset which is very anti-past. However Blobism and other noisy designs (sometimes by computer)... Now that is just a desperate attempt to make something new or original or wanting to be special. Architects should get over themselves. It is also interesting how architects say 19th century architecture was "copying" but don't mind copy&paste generic glass and concrete boxes since 1960s.
@@velvet3784 I hope Le Corbusier goes down in history as the worst thing to ever happen to architecture. The more I learn about that man, the more I despise what he's done.
I lived here back when there was temporary student accommodation (see 2:29), loved it, and so was devastated to come back 3 years later in 2016 to see my old neighbourhood flattened. The Ponsteiger high-rise still horrifies me today. (I was pleased to hear that apparently the way the bathrooms are constructed means you can hear your neighbours peeing.) But I have to say I've been really impressed with how the new neighbourhood is turning out, despite the fact I could never afford to live there! Happy for those who can, and for those lucky enough to get a place in the social units. Amid this housing crisis, let's see how the rest of the city's developments shape up out in Strandeiland and the Haven-Stad...
You should also check Holland Park in Diemen, close to Amsterdam it also tries to bring homage to the older style of architecture but with a modern twist :) and Oostpoort in Amsterdam
Nice to see! I had an office there from 2000 until 2005. There were a few empty lots but still plenty of timber companies there at the beginning, though by the end almost all were gone. It's unrecognisable now. Friends will move in to a place on that island "which is still being built" later this year. On a future visit to Amsterdam, you might want to visit Overhoeks - a new "green" neighbourhood. Though wait a year and give the plants time to grow!
Wow I love this! Nice mix of traditional and modern and gives a nice nod to the cities history - would be epic with more shops and maybe they need a town square but otherwise perfect
Interesting video! I live in the older neighbourhood (Spaarndammerbuurt) across from the Houthavens (not in the nicer "Amsterdam School" buildings unfortunately :D ). I can still remember the old port and company buildings, it was kinda a mess really. It really changed a lot, especially with the tunneling of the road in between upon which they build a park. This video was really quite interesting, lots of information I didn't actually know - mostly because I didn't really pay much attention to why and how of the development. The area definitely improved and it has had some positive influence on the Spaarndammerstraat itself. New shops and bars opened up, but it does get a little bit too busy sometimes. And lets by honest, the newer residents are not quite as...well...eccentric, interesting and funny as older generation. I do prefer the people from the Spaarndammerbuurt...they are just the right kind of slightly mad. :D
Overal wordt een yuppen buurt. Met andere woorden, Jan Modaal en daar onder wordt op neergekeken. Ik heb ook in de Spaarndammerbuurt gewoont en Staatsliedenbuurt.
at @10:00 you state its more quiet then you would like. And indeed there is no single soul on the streets on the video. This is because most people who can afford a home in these neighborhoods require a dual income so it means they work during most part of the day. You should re-visit in the weekends or after 17.00 in the summer. Its a whole different story then... You will see this everywhere in the Netherlands.
you should visit Hamburg's Hafencity, also a lot of styles, all different... but i agree with you, the amount of look alikes isn't a modern thing but it seems to be not only on houses, but also on cars, phones, clothes, all of it...
Great video, my high school is here and now i am studying landscape architecture and spatial planning. So very interesting to have a new insight into a neighbourhood i saw develop over time, without thinking about it in this way
Please come back in a year or two, to see how things have changed! The social housing parts are nearing completion. Next month the building reserved for social housing of people aged 18-28 are completely finished and everyone has moved in.
I watched your perfect city video! It was very interesting and gave me something to think on. Would you be interested in making a video about the shortcomings and accomplishments of American cities? I am really curious since I want to see how they’ve expanded and changed. Especially with public transit not being so good over here. (I think we need more trolleys and trains)
I doubt that this area is being built-up accessible to different social groups. The median gross income in North Holland is ~40K, and from the graph at 7:48 I can see that only 2% of properties are actually affordable to people with this level of income. The next 20% percent may be bought by a couple of professionals. And everything else is the level of top management to me.
Happy to hear that a decent percentage is social housing. I've been reading a lot of "yeah but if we build more higher segment homes then the people currently stuck in social housing can move over" and stuff like that but people who already live in social housing don't always have the financial means to move over and the backlog of applicants for social housing wouldn't be resolved either.
I wish I had known about this development when I visited Amsterdam. They're building a new section of town in my city on a former car factory. I wish they had taken this design approach.
I used to live at Spaarndammerbuurt in Amsterdam, it's next to Houthavens but when i moved there Houthavens wasn't much yet. It was so cool to see day the big progress they made. I would go to work and come back to see apartments had 2floors more and canals were digged. Now moved to Oud South and even though i love the architectonic here i still miss Spaarndammerbuurt looking out over Houthavens.
It's good that they're building more housing, but i would've liked to see it have more of a neighborhood feel with it's own public and commercial space and better transit connections. One nitpick: we don't use the german prounciation, so it's not "pontschtaiger" but pontsteiger, with the "st" pronounced like (st)one and the "g" as in lo(ch) ness. don't fret it however as dutch can be quite difficult to pronounce.
i like this modern interpretation of past features, it makes me thinking of the quite similar project in gdańsk. or near where i live i leave where i spoted houses with what i call a "german roof" with traditional roof shape
Great video, on a great neighbourhood in my city! Fun fact with Amsterdam. You will notice on every residential building (as well as the rest) in Amsterdam feature a central protruding beam, with a hook attached. This was a common feature everywhere in the country early on, for moving large items upstairs, before elevators, though most cities in the Netherlands abandoned their inclusion on new construction. Amsterdam has retained the tradition, to include it onto EVERY new construction, whether it is required or not. A sort of unofficial signature.
My son stayed in some student residence in this neighborhood. and whilst it is nice, it also doesn't solve a major issue in Amsterdam: lack of housing, let alone affordable housing. It is too low density for the current demographic pressures facing Amsterdam.
That seems to be the main issue with such nice things. You either focus on solving the housing problem and quickly, or over a course of 20 years you develop a beautiful neighborhood with expensive housing. This is not a replicable solution, as author notes himself.
Hey fun, that's where I live was my initial response before clicking the video :) For me personally the best construction project which was relatively recently finished is the tunnel that breaks up the traffic and helps keeping a big part of the neighborhood both clean and nicer/safer to walk whilst keeping the benefit of a good connection using public transit.
Side notes: 1. This is a car free zone. If you own a car it will be very expensive to park. There is only 0.2/4 car space per residence in that neighbourhood. 2. The park price starts at 6 euro an hour and renting a parking space is around 200/300 per month. 3. The gemeente rarely gives out parking perments for a fair price. 4. There are no shops or supermarkets in the area. Only at the Spaarndammerbuurt. Overal nice area to live.
@@thehaussmann With pleasure! Also wanted to congratulate you with your great production quality as well. Honoured that you visited Amsterdam and made a video about it. And thank you, it has been a bit overwhelming to be honest, but I'm very happy - anything to help grow awareness for urban matters!
You should take a look at the new Vathorst neighbourhood in Amersfoort. It's entirely newly built and similarly varied and modern yet connected in its design, and it's just a regular neighbourhood, not especially high income. I'm not sure your argument holds up about such designs only being worthwhile for more expensive new builds. I think it's mostly about urban design choices.
There's a few other very similar (smaller) islands that have already been built like this in Amsterdam, although they're mostly just single strips of buildings along a narrow island in comparison to a small neighborhood like this
Looking at that island where everybody could do "what they wanted", so I looked outside here and I thought: Oh, nice of them to pay hommage to Belgium.
its hard to get politics involved with making a city "beautiful". unfortunately, the best tool for that is money, but then we only build beautiful for the rich. one thing i would suggest is making at least the facade need to be built using local/predtermined design trends. and although this neighborhood is pretty to look at, it still lacks the livliness that makes a city feel alive. i think that can be remedied by local gathering places, like cafes and restaurants and a major park/playground, but rich people in general also tend to not aggregate in community spaces.
If you enjoy the different island design, there is the town of Hoofddorp a collection of 13 small island with each a different theme and many the same goals. Its about a 40 min travel from Amsterdam by public transport.
Interesting video, though I'm not a full-on admirer of styles like this, it is *ABSOLUTELY* an improvement compared to the monstrosities that were built in the 70s and 80s in the Netherlands. If you want more suggestions for future places to visit, I can recommend two that I've been to myself. - Brandevoort, Helmond. Basicly built as a 'fortress city', it looks and feels very traditional despite the place being only built quite recently. - Vathorst, Amersfoort. This place is more contemporary and modern, but has some connections with the past also. The main reason to visit the place is because of the 'Foortse Towers', built by German architect Hans Kollhoff, that look very pleasant despite being skyscrapers. There's also Westergouwe in Gouda and then there's projects in other countries like Heulebrug in Knokke-Heist (Flemish part of Belgium), Le Plessis Robinson (Paris, France) and of course Poundbury and Riverside in London, but the other ones are less known and definitely worth the visit. Oh, and Dresden and Frankfurt, but I assume you already know of them since you're German. Cheers!
This is a very good example of how to build a new area or town that has character already built into it and serves the needs of its residents. I've come across too many residential estates that have identical houses such that its easy to get lost. They have no character and no amenities, so good luck when you need milk, bread or anything else because you ran out of these things, you won't find a nearby shop that sells them.
Only downside is that these houses of a reasonable size cost between 1 and 6 million euros, while mini apartments of 60 square meters already set you back over half a million. Hardly a solution for the average family that is in desperate need of housing in the Netherlands now!
A good place to look at good architecture, check out Roombeek neighborhood in the city of Enschede. After the fireworks disaster in 2000 it had to be rebuild completely. Which further invfluenced a new building style in the municipality (Boddenkamp in the same area is later, but clearly influenced bythe design of Roombeek)
You see the same thing happen in London where new builds around Kensington and Chelsea are all characterful and fit in but everywhere else just gets boxes
What's the thing with "local marerials" tho? Transportation costs (money and CO²) are almost negligible with water transport (seas, rivers), and most cost related to transport comes with the transport done with trucks to the building site. You have these costs with local marerials too since you still have to transport them from the place you mined/processed them to the construction site
Ever heard of Brandevoort? A neighbourhood built in a style like an old city center. Including canals. Where no two houses next to eachother are the same.
what a cool place, seems like a nice place to live and visit. Hopefully it influences other projects, im honestly sick of the same repetitive glass buildings. There is so much potencial combining modernity and culture.
a few postmodernist argued that you see a lot of the same buildings all around the globe and that's kinda not what modernists wanted so they wanted to build more focused on local identity and more human-friendly buildings. ua-cam.com/video/ROmzIMIWvKg/v-deo.html a good example although fun looking there are people who think its to ''disney-ish'' but thats secretly what the architect loved about it
interesting video of my hometown, i recommend the east side of town for your next visit. IJburg is the predecessor of Houthaven and Zeeburgereiland is a new city centre
I'd be interested to know how the Dutch do underground parking so close to the water. Where I live, we don't seem to be able to get it right, and lots of parking garages in the port area flood whenever there's heavy rain.
If you like this kind of architecture, Enschede in The Netherlands was one of the first places to start experimenting with different styles of facades to liven up a neighborhood. The plan was conceived by famous architect Pi de Bruijn and his idea became a huge success. After a whole neighborhood was destroyed by a fireworks factory explosion, it had to be rebuilt in its entirety. This is a short 6 minute documentary with English subtitles. If you're into architecture, you will really like this: ua-cam.com/video/rPpEraenjsk/v-deo.html
I grew up in the Netherlands and although i love its cities and could not stand how busy it was.. There are so many people per km2. I prefer now living in a Swedish village/city of 10 000 people. Here i get the space i want and although its not that beautifull of a village nature is all around and its nice and calm.
This might be quite cynical, but to me this is just a new way for developers to extract maximum profit. 'Liveability', 'green space', and 'co-creation' are the new buzzwords for maximum property prices. These new neighborhoods in Amsterdam look identical to new neighborhoods in Copenhagen, often because the same huge firms are behind the projects. As an example, architect Sjoerd Soeters supervised both the development of the Java island in Amsterdam and the Sluseholmen neighborhood in Copenhagen, and you can tell. Neither ever lived up to their promised level of mixed use. If we really wanted to fight the monotonoy caused by developers, then we have to stop giving them control over whole neighborhoods.
Someone has to build these things. Amsterdam has a lot of 'control' over the specifics of what gets developed. Do they always make the right trade-offs guiding these developments? Probably not. But it's not like developers just dream up and build things here.
Passed by Houthaven a few days ago not knowing what's going on next to me :D. I have to go back now when watching this video. Not today unfortunately it rains all day, typical Dutch weather.
In the UK they have built two 'new towns' that pattern older established towns in their layout and architecture but you can walk through them and hardly even see a cat !
I accidentally went through Houthavens when I visited a conference in Amsterdam. It was 8am and everyone was outside with their kids, chatting with each other. I have never seen a new development that was so vivid. And so many people have access to a canal. Truly stunning place!
Same! I accidentally went through it when going to Theater Amsterdam. I was amazed by how it looks and feels. It was not immediately obvious that it was a fairly new neighboorhood. The only only thing that gave it away was the construction equipment lying around. But I was amazed with how much greenery there is!
Great 🌴🇸🇪🇷🇸
I first came across your channel through the "Let's Build the Perfect City" video and just wanted to say that you convinced me completely on how we can build beautiful new neighborhoods and districts for our cities. You have an amazing channel and really good insight and I wish you the best going forward!
They can be built, but you still can’t afford them.
@@hylje The more you build desirable spaces the lower the prices will get if it's more of the norm or that demand starts to dwindle because so many people are now living in these desirable neighbourhoods. The price dropping will take time but it can happen.
As nice as Houthavens is... the plans are from the 90s when they thought the "city would be finished". That's why it has relatively low density. You can see a similar thing in Oostelijk Havengebied which was developed at the same time (but then also got built at that time and not around 15 years later). It's nice enough, but too much lower density single family housing. The least they should have done is put more "portiekwoningen" there, basically two single family homes on top of each other like you can find in many other older Amsterdam neighbourhoods. IJburg, also designed in the late 90s, was supposed to be much bigger and have a proper metro rather than a light rail line that's often at capacity like it is now (with only half of the housing of the entire project being finished at this time). IJburg Haveneiland was supposed to have a third more residents which would have made commerce on the island itself more viable too. It's now considered a little boring. When Strandeiland is getting built they're planning to put all those people on an isolated island onto the same single tram line? Yikes. Sidenote; the reason why Houthavens is not more comercially mixed use is because they didn't want to cannibalize the commerce in the existing neighbourhood next to it which was struggling in the 90s to be attractive.
Back then they thought these areas were "far away from central areas" and nearly suburban which is why they were built that way. They were designed to be an alternative for families leaving the cities to Almere (actual suburbs). Yet 10 years later the tide turned because the cities were cleaned up from the rough 80s and city living became trendy again. Right now with the housing shortage we're in, those areas outside the ring are quickly redeveloping and seen as very desirable as most places inside the ring have become very expensive. The scope of what's considered centrally located has changed a lot. Luckily the city is not making the same mistake again and is building higher density in the areas they are redeveloping around the motorway ring.
Like in Houthavens all the buildings with "individual facades" are all incredible expensive houses being sold for around a million euros (not an entire "house", just an apartment in them). But to its defence... Stettineiland is NOT a gated community lol. You walking past the front years proves that. It's also not designed by "young architects" but by two architecture firms. If you saw gates at the entrance it's to prevent cycling and driving through the pedestrian streets. As far as rich enclaves go, this one has car lifts to the underground parking garage which is sort of cool. That way we at least don't have to see the SUVs..
An important thing to note though is that the city of Amsterdam owns a majority of all their territory. It leases it out to its users. That means the city has a tradition of redeveloping land itself. It designs the neighbourhoods itself (either hires architects and urban planners or do everything in-house, depending on the decade) according to its political values of the time (usually that is rooted in social democracy). That's why all newer neighbourhoods in the coming years will be mixed 40 social housing 40 "mid market rental" and 20 "market" housing. Designing entire neighbourhoods in one go is how most new Dutch neighbourhoods have been built since the 1930s (but has its roots to even the city planning of the canal ring). Dutch modern architecture in Amsterdam is generally very good though. WIth social housing looking spectacularly good so that you wouldn't notice it being such and even modern buildings. You're proving this point by not noticing (or at least mentioning) that the buildings on Karlskrona-eiland (Theme G) and Revaleiland (Theme F) is mostly social housing as well (note that at 8:48... the social housing is on the right and free market housing on the left). Newbuilds using traditional brick is fortunately very common in the city, and isn't specific to Houthavens. The reason why ornamentation generally not seen in modern Dutch Architecture (though I must say Amsterdam architecture is much better than the national and neighbouring countries' average) is because of general Dutch architecture philosophy, basically parroted around at the Technical University of Delft.
Also, Pontsteiger definitely is part of the project. It was drawn up in the masterplan. That doesn't keep the architect of the masterplan to publicly rail against highrises elsewhere though lol. The current policy of highrises is that they will be built along the IJ river and along the motorway ring and some other suburban spots that will transform into a regional focal point. This way they'll be the best connected and offer the most value (views, relation to the older parts of the city, public transit already established, not interfere too much since these areas have more sparingly used space).
I'm happy to answer more questions.
It’s great, but Amsterdam needs 10-20 more of the same thing.
Huh
Thank you.
@@hylje No thanks, we don't need every neighbourhood to be gentrified for yuppies. The city needs social housing and less of these expensive apartments for expats.
@@Smonsequenses Either everyone deserves housing or no one does.
I live in this neighborhood, it's also important to note that it's part of the bigger plan in Amsterdam to develop the old industrial seaport areas. It started around 2000, eastern of the center (java-eiland), and has also reached the North (Old Shell-tower area, NDSM), and will probably be expanded, because there is a huge demand for housing. And of course, areas near water are usually quite popular for various reasons.
How expensive is the neighborhood?
My son (a student from Delft University in his final year) is lucky enough to be one of the first residents of this new neighbourhood. He shares the appartment with two friends; they have a shared living room/kitchen but each have their own bathroom. Just one of the interesting new concepts of 'living together while still having your private space'. A large communal room is under construction in the building. Meant for parties, a couple of exercise bikes, having meetings about shared interests (they're speaking of buying a boat together with their co-residents😊) watching a game on TV together, play table tennis and what not. Very interesting to watch how it's developing. Thank you for sharing your insights! 🖖
It's a beautiful neighborhood, but that sounds like a long commute
@@bunch_of_numbers It's less than an hour. Most of his colleges he can follow online and it's only for a couple of months or so. He just jumped at the chance of getting this appartment. The 'normal' waiting list for an appartment is now over twelve years. Guess he didn't feel like waiting that long. 😊
Sorry but that is not new. Students have been sharing living rooms and kitchens for a long time.
@@bla5102 True. But not in quite this way where the housing company gives all three students their own shower and toilet and they only share the front door, kitchen and living room. At least, it's the first time I 've heard of that this was done on purpose. And please don't apologize! Your input is valued. 🖖
Lmao this concept is called "having a roommate" and it's been here for decades, if not centuries 😅
I live near to this neighborhood, and I like the Houthavens a lot. In general I don't like boxes, but this is the best that boxes can be. I like Art Nouveau and Art Deco. There is a bit of Deco in the Houthavens. One thing you may have missed; there used to be a very busy road in between the Houthavens and the Spaarndammerbuurt next to it. Now there is a park instead! Where did the very busy road go? It went underground!!
Many cities in The Netherlands have done this, in many city centres new developments must have a (red) brick outer wall for example. Some flats where I live have the style of an old flour mill they are built next to. I have also seen something similar in Austria and Germany where new modern buildings have old looking features.
Best example is near Zaandam near Amsterdam where several large modern buildings have been built in the style of local traditional wooden houses.
It is sad that in some regions native styles and materials seem to have completely disappeared while they were often gorgeous and definitely worth keeping. Especially in Asia and Africa where many modern city centres just look ...... unremarkable.
But it is all politics, really. What you need is a local council with enough power and backbone to tell developers to $%$@^& off if they can't follow local style rules.
Funny that you mentioned Zaandam! While filming this, I stayed at the Inntel hotel up there. My thoughts about the area were mixed. I liked that it’s Dutch inspired, and found it to be friendly towards pedestrians and cyclists. At the same time, it had a “Vegas feel” to it.
I couldn’t agree more with your point about Africa and Asia. Late industrialization is detrimental to a city, and those continents have without a doubt suffered the most.
If you tell developers to go away, you’ll have to contend with an unequal housing market that tells ordinary people to go away because you refuse to build enough homes to house all of them.
@@hylje Plenty of developers can abide to style rules it seems. It is not really different from building codes. Even for social housing is not a problem.
Local property owners as a rule like this as well, a better looking area is good for property prices after all.
it is called 'Traditional' not 'old'.
Maybe people like old cities because the houses were build for many generations to come, and therefore they made an extra effort and expenses to make it look good. Still I don't like the architecture in Amsterdam's city centre, the canal houses, by themselves. But all together with their diversity, it's a really pleasant environment that looks good.
I think a lot of good architecture that is pleasant to be close to and not just admire and photograph, is about ratio's. Height width ratios of windows, of the whole building, height of building vs street. If that somewhat matches you can have a lot of different buildings next to eachother giving it a very human scale and amusing the eye, as in having to look and take all the different shapes in rather than 'getting' the whole building in the blink of an eye
Not that I don't like post modern architecture, it can be breathtaking, but also be alienating, more to admire than pleasant being in the midst of it.
it's so beautiful to see a new city quarter taking inspiration from the older parts of town and not just be filled with copy paste modern blocks!! would love to live there! would be cool to find a way to build like this everywhere!
Voor dat je hier komt wonen, leer wel even Nederlands
Once again you’ve knocked it out of the ball park with this video!
Great job and keep up the amazing work!!
I noticed in Alphen aan den Rijn they also overhauled a little part in the city centre, also building the buildings in this old Dutch/Amsterdam style. It looks so neat
Glad I subscribed a couple months ago. Truly quality content, you show inspirational and informational stuffs and go out of your way to make these.
Keep it up!
Amsterdam is such a cool place!
Wow! As a Dutchie, I've never heard of this neighborhood before. I love that there is so much variety, but it still fits nicely with the other surrounding neighborhoods. We need more well-designed neighborhoods like this all over the country, because newly constructed neighborhoods are starting to look the same, with little diversity these days. It's not as bad as other countries, but could definitely be improved. Thanks for the detailed video!
Goed ontworpen? We hebben gigantisch woningtekort hier in Amsterdam en dan maken ze een miljonairswijk (elk huis staat voor minimaal 1 miljoen op Funda). Dat is toch niet meer van deze tijd, zoveel ruimte innemen voor de allerrijksten. Dit had volgegooid moeten worden met appartementen.
@@exs88 Dat het een lage dichtheid heeft is inderdaad een minpunt van deze wijk, al heeft dat ook weer voordelen. Ik had begrepen dat het plan voor deze wijk al in de jaren '90 was genomen toen er nog minder druk stond op de woningmarkt. Maar los daarvan, als je kijkt naar de architectuur, de variatie, de aankleding van de leefomgeving, is dit wel een geslaagde wijk, zeker als je kijkt naar wat ze tegenwoordig elders bouwen.
@@exs88Wie gaat dit betalen dan?
Awesome video! I went to high school next to the residential area in the houthavens (2016-2022).
It was super cool seeing how the area changed over time and experiencing it in real time!
I'd walk around the neighbourhood every so often, and each time there was a new surprise :)
Great case study. The Dutch really know how to do these things well. I think Island 1 is my favourite one. Seems like a really go reinterpretation of past designs, with a modern flavour, but not in a cliché/pastiche way. The only things I'm not so sure about with this development are it feels like there's not enough commercial/retail units and no visible public transport, which makes it seem a bit quiet. But maybe that's a bonus when you're so close to the centre of Amsterdam? I'll have to visit to get a proper sense of the place.
As mentioned this development is not only relatively close to the city center but also a stone's throw away from Spaarndammer quarters, a mixed residential area with all everyday amenities available. It could do with some more mixed use I guess but considering Amsterdam's flexible zoning policies it looks promising.
Not that I could afford to live there...
Yes it’s a quiet neighborhood and it does not have direct acces to high quality public transport. It’s really a family oriented, almost suburban, single use neighborhood. In that sense, it’s nothing new. What makes it unique is the architecture and design of the public space
I live in the center of Amsterdam right now and I can confirm "not enough commercial units" seems like a huge plus to me right now ;) Im esspecially done with restaurants that stock their kitchen at 07:00 in the weekend 😄 Also lack of public transport is less of a big deal when you take in account that everybody here has no problem cycling a bit to a near bus/metro/tram/trainstation
@@timba1181 Good to hear a local perspective! Yeah, deliveries to commercial units at unsocial hours can be annoying, so I hear you. I guess you could restrict the types of commercial available.
The lack of commerce was a deliberate decision as to not 'cannibalize' the shopping street in the nextdoor neighbourhood. Its character was to be mainly residential. This neighbourhood does have a hotel, public school and a community center though.
As for transit, there bus lines. But the plans are to redevelop an even larger area to the east and north of this neighbourhood that would be built extremely car light. So there are plans to extend a tram line to this area and also close the 'metro ring' from nearby Isolatorweg station to Central Station with a stop on the edge of this neighbourhood.
I used to live in Westerpark just around the corner from Houthavens until fairly recently, so it's nice to see it almost completed now. I've watched its development since the start (never ceases to amaze me how quickly the Dutch build!). I just wanted to give you a very well deserved handshake. That was a fantastically put together piece and very informative/so well researched. If you come back, make a trip to the opposite side of the northern part of the city in the east and go visit Ijburg. Its a similar blueprint, but some of the modernist architecture there is absolutely beautiful.
Amazing video man, the only thing I may disagree with is the fact that a lot of the stripped down facades in modern buildings is the fact that modern architects have an obsession of being different and not copying the past. And since the past is well known for ornamentation the architects decide to either make the building weird or oversimplified.
They dislike ornaments because they were taught to dislike them by their professors who were under influence of Bauhaus school and Le Corbusier. So architectural classes are still stuck in 20th century modernist mindset which is very anti-past. However Blobism and other noisy designs (sometimes by computer)... Now that is just a desperate attempt to make something new or original or wanting to be special. Architects should get over themselves.
It is also interesting how architects say 19th century architecture was "copying" but don't mind copy&paste generic glass and concrete boxes since 1960s.
@@velvet3784 exactly!!
@Velvet yes
@@velvet3784 I hope Le Corbusier goes down in history as the worst thing to ever happen to architecture. The more I learn about that man, the more I despise what he's done.
oof! so glad somebody else seems to mutter to themself how fuckingly Sixties even today's new crap still stuffily is 🍸
I lived here back when there was temporary student accommodation (see 2:29), loved it, and so was devastated to come back 3 years later in 2016 to see my old neighbourhood flattened. The Ponsteiger high-rise still horrifies me today. (I was pleased to hear that apparently the way the bathrooms are constructed means you can hear your neighbours peeing.) But I have to say I've been really impressed with how the new neighbourhood is turning out, despite the fact I could never afford to live there! Happy for those who can, and for those lucky enough to get a place in the social units. Amid this housing crisis, let's see how the rest of the city's developments shape up out in Strandeiland and the Haven-Stad...
You should also check Holland Park in Diemen, close to Amsterdam it also tries to bring homage to the older style of architecture but with a modern twist :) and Oostpoort in Amsterdam
As someone who lives in Houthavens, this video offered some nice insight into the unique style of the area. Very well done!
subbed after 90 seconds. You had me on 'so on my first trip to holland, i visited a construction site'. Nice intro!
as someone who commutes into amsterdam on a daily basis, i never knew what they were building, and havent been there since it now starts looking good
Nice to see! I had an office there from 2000 until 2005. There were a few empty lots but still plenty of timber companies there at the beginning, though by the end almost all were gone. It's unrecognisable now. Friends will move in to a place on that island "which is still being built" later this year. On a future visit to Amsterdam, you might want to visit Overhoeks - a new "green" neighbourhood. Though wait a year and give the plants time to grow!
Really good video, enjoyed it.
Wow I love this! Nice mix of traditional and modern and gives a nice nod to the cities history - would be epic with more shops and maybe they need a town square but otherwise perfect
No. Not more shops. Amsterdam has enough shops. Actually so many, that they are tourist traps where no local wants to go. So no shops
Interesting video! I live in the older neighbourhood (Spaarndammerbuurt) across from the Houthavens (not in the nicer "Amsterdam School" buildings unfortunately :D ). I can still remember the old port and company buildings, it was kinda a mess really. It really changed a lot, especially with the tunneling of the road in between upon which they build a park. This video was really quite interesting, lots of information I didn't actually know - mostly because I didn't really pay much attention to why and how of the development. The area definitely improved and it has had some positive influence on the Spaarndammerstraat itself. New shops and bars opened up, but it does get a little bit too busy sometimes. And lets by honest, the newer residents are not quite as...well...eccentric, interesting and funny as older generation. I do prefer the people from the Spaarndammerbuurt...they are just the right kind of slightly mad. :D
True that. Similar things happened in Oud West which in the time I lived there was more of a Wild West...
korte broek, grote man, zegt altijd auw, OG member van de spaarndammerbuurt
Overal wordt een yuppen buurt. Met andere woorden, Jan Modaal en daar onder wordt op neergekeken. Ik heb ook in de Spaarndammerbuurt gewoont en Staatsliedenbuurt.
at @10:00 you state its more quiet then you would like. And indeed there is no single soul on the streets on the video. This is because most people who can afford a home in these neighborhoods require a dual income so it means they work during most part of the day. You should re-visit in the weekends or after 17.00 in the summer. Its a whole different story then... You will see this everywhere in the Netherlands.
you should visit Hamburg's Hafencity, also a lot of styles, all different... but i agree with you, the amount of look alikes isn't a modern thing but it seems to be not only on houses, but also on cars, phones, clothes, all of it...
Great video, my high school is here and now i am studying landscape architecture and spatial planning. So very interesting to have a new insight into a neighbourhood i saw develop over time, without thinking about it in this way
Please come back in a year or two, to see how things have changed! The social housing parts are nearing completion. Next month the building reserved for social housing of people aged 18-28 are completely finished and everyone has moved in.
I watched your perfect city video! It was very interesting and gave me something to think on. Would you be interested in making a video about the shortcomings and accomplishments of American cities? I am really curious since I want to see how they’ve expanded and changed. Especially with public transit not being so good over here. (I think we need more trolleys and trains)
I doubt that this area is being built-up accessible to different social groups. The median gross income in North Holland is ~40K, and from the graph at 7:48 I can see that only 2% of properties are actually affordable to people with this level of income. The next 20% percent may be bought by a couple of professionals. And everything else is the level of top management to me.
Happy to hear that a decent percentage is social housing. I've been reading a lot of "yeah but if we build more higher segment homes then the people currently stuck in social housing can move over" and stuff like that but people who already live in social housing don't always have the financial means to move over and the backlog of applicants for social housing wouldn't be resolved either.
Excellent overview of new city developments! Keep up the good work!
I wish I had known about this development when I visited Amsterdam. They're building a new section of town in my city on a former car factory. I wish they had taken this design approach.
Nice to learn more about it! It's a really beautiful neighborhood, actually more beautiful than you see in the video.
I laughed out loud hearing "Pontsteiger" being pronounced like a german would. 9:10
Great video! I’ll definitely be visiting this neighborhood when I’m back in Amsterdam in a few weeks
Cool video! There is actually a new neighbourhood in The Hague that makes use of traditional architecture. It is called Vroondaal
I used to live at Spaarndammerbuurt in Amsterdam, it's next to Houthavens but when i moved there Houthavens wasn't much yet. It was so cool to see day the big progress they made. I would go to work and come back to see apartments had 2floors more and canals were digged. Now moved to Oud South and even though i love the architectonic here i still miss Spaarndammerbuurt looking out over Houthavens.
It's good that they're building more housing, but i would've liked to see it have more of a neighborhood feel with it's own public and commercial space and better transit connections.
One nitpick: we don't use the german prounciation, so it's not "pontschtaiger" but pontsteiger, with the "st" pronounced like (st)one and the "g" as in lo(ch) ness. don't fret it however as dutch can be quite difficult to pronounce.
First time encountering your channel, I was wondering where the last site in your intro video was taken?
That was taken in Dinant, Belgium! A beautiful small town :)
@@thehaussmann thanks!
The goddamn Dutch did it again - sincerely a slightly jealous Belgian from Antwerp
i like this modern interpretation of past features, it makes me thinking of the quite similar project in gdańsk. or near where i live i leave where i spoted houses with what i call a "german roof" with traditional roof shape
Great video, on a great neighbourhood in my city!
Fun fact with Amsterdam. You will notice on every residential building (as well as the rest) in Amsterdam feature a central protruding beam, with a hook attached. This was a common feature everywhere in the country early on, for moving large items upstairs, before elevators, though most cities in the Netherlands abandoned their inclusion on new construction. Amsterdam has retained the tradition, to include it onto EVERY new construction, whether it is required or not. A sort of unofficial signature.
My son stayed in some student residence in this neighborhood. and whilst it is nice, it also doesn't solve a major issue in Amsterdam: lack of housing, let alone affordable housing. It is too low density for the current demographic pressures facing Amsterdam.
That seems to be the main issue with such nice things. You either focus on solving the housing problem and quickly, or over a course of 20 years you develop a beautiful neighborhood with expensive housing. This is not a replicable solution, as author notes himself.
Hey fun, that's where I live was my initial response before clicking the video :) For me personally the best construction project which was relatively recently finished is the tunnel that breaks up the traffic and helps keeping a big part of the neighborhood both clean and nicer/safer to walk whilst keeping the benefit of a good connection using public transit.
OMG! I grew up close to Amsterdam. I love this so much! I have never seen a better interpretation from oldloved into newmodern. I love my Volks! 🤩
Side notes:
1. This is a car free zone. If you own a car it will be very expensive to park. There is only 0.2/4 car space per residence in that neighbourhood.
2. The park price starts at 6 euro an hour and renting a parking space is around 200/300 per month.
3. The gemeente rarely gives out parking perments for a fair price.
4. There are no shops or supermarkets in the area. Only at the Spaarndammerbuurt.
Overal nice area to live.
Thank you for this great video! It’s indeed a nice area - not very affordable, but nicely done and much better than the alternative
Thanks Ruben. Again, congrats on your viral video!
@@thehaussmann With pleasure! Also wanted to congratulate you with your great production quality as well. Honoured that you visited Amsterdam and made a video about it. And thank you, it has been a bit overwhelming to be honest, but I'm very happy - anything to help grow awareness for urban matters!
love the content, good job
Why don't you make videos anymore do you have another channel
You should take a look at the new Vathorst neighbourhood in Amersfoort. It's entirely newly built and similarly varied and modern yet connected in its design, and it's just a regular neighbourhood, not especially high income. I'm not sure your argument holds up about such designs only being worthwhile for more expensive new builds. I think it's mostly about urban design choices.
There's a few other very similar (smaller) islands that have already been built like this in Amsterdam, although they're mostly just single strips of buildings along a narrow island in comparison to a small neighborhood like this
This is brilliant. Very reassuring
Great video, very interesting and a great analysis
Great video. Great job!
Are you going to continue making videos on this channel? I like your content very much.
Looking at that island where everybody could do "what they wanted", so I looked outside here and I thought: Oh, nice of them to pay hommage to Belgium.
its hard to get politics involved with making a city "beautiful". unfortunately, the best tool for that is money, but then we only build beautiful for the rich. one thing i would suggest is making at least the facade need to be built using local/predtermined design trends.
and although this neighborhood is pretty to look at, it still lacks the livliness that makes a city feel alive. i think that can be remedied by local gathering places, like cafes and restaurants and a major park/playground, but rich people in general also tend to not aggregate in community spaces.
If you enjoy the different island design, there is the town of Hoofddorp a collection of 13 small island with each a different theme and many the same goals. Its about a 40 min travel from Amsterdam by public transport.
Interesting video, though I'm not a full-on admirer of styles like this, it is *ABSOLUTELY* an improvement compared to the monstrosities that were built in the 70s and 80s in the Netherlands.
If you want more suggestions for future places to visit, I can recommend two that I've been to myself.
- Brandevoort, Helmond. Basicly built as a 'fortress city', it looks and feels very traditional despite the place being only built quite recently.
- Vathorst, Amersfoort. This place is more contemporary and modern, but has some connections with the past also. The main reason to visit the place is because of the 'Foortse Towers', built by German architect Hans Kollhoff, that look very pleasant despite being skyscrapers.
There's also Westergouwe in Gouda and then there's projects in other countries like Heulebrug in Knokke-Heist (Flemish part of Belgium), Le Plessis Robinson (Paris, France) and of course Poundbury and Riverside in London, but the other ones are less known and definitely worth the visit. Oh, and Dresden and Frankfurt, but I assume you already know of them since you're German. Cheers!
Doe de groeten aan Thierry 😂
@@on-the-pitch-p3w "DoE dE gRoEtEn AaN tHiErRy!!!1!" 🤓
This is a very good example of how to build a new area or town that has character already built into it and serves the needs of its residents. I've come across too many residential estates that have identical houses such that its easy to get lost. They have no character and no amenities, so good luck when you need milk, bread or anything else because you ran out of these things, you won't find a nearby shop that sells them.
Only downside is that these houses of a reasonable size cost between 1 and 6 million euros, while mini apartments of 60 square meters already set you back over half a million. Hardly a solution for the average family that is in desperate need of housing in the Netherlands now!
A good place to look at good architecture, check out Roombeek neighborhood in the city of Enschede. After the fireworks disaster in 2000 it had to be rebuild completely. Which further invfluenced a new building style in the municipality (Boddenkamp in the same area is later, but clearly influenced bythe design of Roombeek)
great video, thank you very much!
man watching these videos makes study for urban design
You see the same thing happen in London where new builds around Kensington and Chelsea are all characterful and fit in but everywhere else just gets boxes
Fascinating. These Dutch mfs never fail to impress me
I'm one myself, but hardly impressive. 😜
What's the thing with "local marerials" tho? Transportation costs (money and CO²) are almost negligible with water transport (seas, rivers), and most cost related to transport comes with the transport done with trucks to the building site. You have these costs with local marerials too since you still have to transport them from the place you mined/processed them to the construction site
Great video!
It seems a place where also houseboats could fit in some of the the canals making it feel even more Amsterdam like.
Except houseboats really rob anyone on the street from any view of the water. Huge waste in the inner city canals if you ask me.
Can you explain further why building heights matter in next video?
I guess it has got to do with the human scale. Along the canals you will see the same heights and widths everywhere.
Keep going bro...your videos are really good👍 you will get popular
You should see what they did in Gdansk. A beautiful example of modern, but fitting, architecture on the little city island (Wyspa Spichrzow).
Fantastic essay! It's a great looking neighborhood, too bad cool developments like these are unatainable for even the middle class.
Ever heard of Brandevoort? A neighbourhood built in a style like an old city center. Including canals. Where no two houses next to eachother are the same.
Yes.
what a cool place, seems like a nice place to live and visit. Hopefully it influences other projects, im honestly sick of the same repetitive glass buildings. There is so much potencial combining modernity and culture.
a few postmodernist argued that you see a lot of the same buildings all around the globe and that's kinda not what modernists wanted so they wanted to build more focused on local identity and more human-friendly buildings.
ua-cam.com/video/ROmzIMIWvKg/v-deo.html a good example although fun looking there are people who think its to ''disney-ish'' but thats secretly what the architect loved about it
interesting video of my hometown, i recommend the east side of town for your next visit. IJburg is the predecessor of Houthaven and Zeeburgereiland is a new city centre
0:33 this is down right disgusting
It is like a parasite, I am glad the architect behind it is not a surgeon too, imagine they want to add "junxtaposition" to a human body
Yeah
We have this kind of architecture in Amsterdam as well. Just take a look at Concertgebouw and Stedelijk Museum 😬
@@EdwinMartinhelaas wordt te vaak een uitbreiding van een historische pand met weinig respect gehandeld
I'd be interested to know how the Dutch do underground parking so close to the water. Where I live, we don't seem to be able to get it right, and lots of parking garages in the port area flood whenever there's heavy rain.
Well half of the Netherlands is below sea level, so keeping an underground parking dry must not that big of a challenge 😄
We even make underground parking for bikes right next to water. Two new bike parking's opened recently at the front and the back of central station.
Fun video, please do more like these!
Really well designed! Wish we had this here in Seattle.
houthaven is indeed a great neighbourhood. With Ijburg my favourite part of Amsterdam, Houthaven edging it as it's more connected.
Yoi gotta take a look at holland park in diemen to
It reminds me a lot of the Prince Hendrik canal area in my hometown Katwijk which has been redeveloped in the same way before
If you like this kind of architecture, Enschede in The Netherlands was one of the first places to start experimenting with different styles of facades to liven up a neighborhood. The plan was conceived by famous architect Pi de Bruijn and his idea became a huge success.
After a whole neighborhood was destroyed by a fireworks factory explosion, it had to be rebuilt in its entirety. This is a short 6 minute documentary with English subtitles. If you're into architecture, you will really like this:
ua-cam.com/video/rPpEraenjsk/v-deo.html
Great documentary.
Great video! New sub :)
it's nice but i still prefere a more conservative style of building with modern techniques and materials at the outside
I grew up in the Netherlands and although i love its cities and could not stand how busy it was.. There are so many people per km2. I prefer now living in a Swedish village/city of 10 000 people. Here i get the space i want and although its not that beautifull of a village nature is all around and its nice and calm.
This might be quite cynical, but to me this is just a new way for developers to extract maximum profit. 'Liveability', 'green space', and 'co-creation' are the new buzzwords for maximum property prices. These new neighborhoods in Amsterdam look identical to new neighborhoods in Copenhagen, often because the same huge firms are behind the projects. As an example, architect Sjoerd Soeters supervised both the development of the Java island in Amsterdam and the Sluseholmen neighborhood in Copenhagen, and you can tell. Neither ever lived up to their promised level of mixed use.
If we really wanted to fight the monotonoy caused by developers, then we have to stop giving them control over whole neighborhoods.
Someone has to build these things. Amsterdam has a lot of 'control' over the specifics of what gets developed. Do they always make the right trade-offs guiding these developments? Probably not. But it's not like developers just dream up and build things here.
by definition, architects are not "solely responsible" unless it is their own house.
@10:35 It is closer to the center of Amsterdam then the place I park when I go there. (when I drive).
I actually delivered in this area a few days ago, its a very cool concept indeed.
Passed by Houthaven a few days ago not knowing what's going on next to me :D. I have to go back now when watching this video. Not today unfortunately it rains all day, typical Dutch weather.
i used to work here. it's a very nice neigbourhood
In the UK they have built two 'new towns' that pattern older established towns in their layout and architecture but you can walk through them and hardly even see a cat !
I was in Nulang a few years ago and it's a really beautiful country also the Dutch people are beautiful and the Protestant majority in the Netherlands
Love the intro.