Amsterdam-Zuidoost, big ideas on the modern city (part 1)

In 1966 Amsterdam annexed the polders Bijlmermeer, Oost-Bijlmer, West-Bijlmer, Bullewijk, Holendrecht, Gein en Gaasp and (part of) the Venserpolder. This new part of Amsterdam called Amsterdam-Zuidoost (Amsterdam Southeast) is an exclave surrounded by Ouderkerk, Duivendrecht, Diemen, Abcoude and Weesp. The old polder landscape was quickly covered over with a layer of sand dredged from the Ouderkerkerplas and Gaasperplas to provide a blank canvas for the realisation of an urban satellite fit for modern living.

The global plan (Structuurplan) was finalized in 1965 after 8 years of research and based on the experiences gained in the Western Garden Cities. The new satellite would have to accommodate 110,000 inhabitants in 40,000 units and no less than 80,000 jobs. Work started in 1966 in the northern part where once the Bijlmermeerpolder had been.

In a sense the ideas for Amsterdam-Zuidoost combine the ideas of the Garden City Movement with those of Modernisme, in particular the ideas of Le Corbusier on the Radiant City. The satellite was to be divided in neigbourhouds, be connected to the central city by road and rail, have areas designated for special functions, have a greenbelt of parks and allotment gardens and separate working and living conform the Garden City Ideals. The satellite was however to be built on a grid plan, with a comprehensive spatial separation of functions and users, with high-rise apartment buildings set in a continuous park landscape and has a large shopping centre with smaller neigbourhood shop satellites along the lines of modernist ideals.

Amsterdam-Zuidoost consists of three component parts: West, North and South. The western party comprises two large industrial estates (Bullewijk and Amstel) to which in the north a football stadium (Amsterdam ArenA) and Leisure complex with cinema, music venues, shops and restaurants was added between 1995 and 2010. The industrial estates are located on a strip between the motorway and railway. East of this strip the housing was planned on a grid parallel to the railway. The Bijlmerdreef separates the northern part colloquially known as Bijlmer (officially: Bijlmermeer) from Bijlmer-Zuid or Gaasperdam.

The Bijlmer was designed with two levels of traffic. The Bijlmerdreef was the first elevated road to be constructed in 1968 and runs between the railway station and the greenbelt-park of Bijlmerweide.  Of this central axis ran several other elevated roads. This separation of modes of traffic is an important feature of the original design. Cars drive along the elevated roads which fly over pedestrian avenues and wide cycle paths. Between the grid of roads and paths hexagonal high-rise buildings were to be built in a varied park. The parking garages for each complex of apartment buildings was easily accessed from the elevated roads. Parallel to the Bijlmerdreef a functional strip with all the amenities was planned. At a right angle to this central strip the large open space op the Bijlmerpark was laid out. With only one railway station on the edge of the development it was decided to connect Amsterdam-Zuidoost with the central city via a metro line. This line runs between the high-rise buildings on stilts through the greenery and terminates near the Gaasperpark.  Later a second line was built through the southern part of Amsterdam-Zuidoost terminating at Gein.

Amsterdam-Zuidoost has a very clear structure underlying it, only in Gaasperdam (G) the layout shifts away from the grid that was laid out parallel to the railway. The satellite hinges on the A9 motorway and is bordered by the A2 motorway. The industrial zone of Bullewijk (b) and Amstel (a) are situated between the motorway and the railway. Near the station we find some offices, as well as the leisure complex south of the Amsterdam ArenA. The northern part of Amsterdam-Zuidoost includes the Bijlmermeer (B) comprised of high-rises (deep red),low-rise housing (tangerine) and amenities (burnt orange). Venserpolder (V) comprises of low-rise apartment blocks and terraced housing. Exept for Nellestein Gaasperdam also comprises of low-rise apartment blocks and terraced housing. The elevated roads are shown in yellow.

The whole of Amsterdam -Zuidoost was to be executed in a brutalist way with high-rise social housing. In a corner near the station conventional slab-type apartment buildings were built within the gridlines. The aim of the new development was to attract middle class inhabitants to this new urban satellite. The apartments provided were very spacious with communal spaces and had covered walkways connecting the buildings and garages. Around the edges low-rise apartment buildings were built together with some terraced housing. All are laid out within the grid.

For the area south of the Gaasperdammerweg (now Motorway A9) the initial idea was to extend the layout of the northern part, with high-rise buildings around the shopping centres, low-rise buildings near the green belt and elevated roads and metro. For this part however, with the at best mixed experiences with Bijlmer-Noord, it was decided to fall back to more conventional solutions as had been proposed in an alternative plan. This meant less high-rise, more terraced housing and low-rise apartment blocks, a return to apartments above shops, more space for car traffic at the expense of pedestrians, no communal spaces within the buildings and a focus on private gardens. The elevated through roads however remained a feature because of the far greater traffic safety. The layout of Gaasperdam departs from the grid layout, except for the older neighbourhoods Holendrecht-West and Holendrecht-Oost.

Social decline, high crime rates and a poor image as a black ghetto combined with the 1992 plane crash resulted in plans for substantial urban renewal towards suburban housing for the middle classes and away from large scale apartment buildings with low cost social housing. In places the elevated roads have been lowered and combined with footpaths on either side. The cycle paths remain segregated. The existing shopping centres have been demolished or redeveloped. Most of the iconic hexagonal high-rise buildings have been demolished and are being replaced by terraced housing and low-rise apartment buildings. The once extensive public green space is being parceled off as gardens and parking spaces. The new buildings are mostly built in a fashionable contemporary style, but without any overarching plan or idea. This makes for a rather scattered urban fabric with small neighbourhoods with distinct but isolated features in street plan, layout and building characteristics. This enforces the mixed morphology of Amsterdam-Zuidoost that was a result of augmentations from the 1980s.The partial preservation of the hexagonal high-rises in the D and G sections also works poorly as there is often little interaction between the new and the old. Thus the distinctive feel of Amsterdam-Zuidoost is slowly being converted into the haphazard approach to suburban living characterized by Almere.

Skate

Many local councils like to see special activities around the festive period that make the city centre more lively, especially in the evenings when the shops have closed. Ice skating is often associated with family fun during the winter months. Where an ice rink used to be made by flooding a square with a thin layer of water during a cold spell, nowadays synthetic ice rinks can be constructed by using a floor of solid polymer panels. The materials used are HDPE or  UHMW, both offering a reasonable skating experience. So the weather is no longer a limitation for "winter fun".

Amstelland and Waterland a landscape of polders

De ground beneath Amsterdam and the surrounding area is composed of alternating layers of sand, clay and peat. The sand was deposited by rivers that flowed here 2.5 million years ago. During the ice ages several layers of peat and sand blown in of the barren tundra were deposited on the river sand. After this the main influence came from water (both the sea and rivers and shallow lakes) that deposited clay. On this clay peat bogs and fens developed.

Originally these bogs and fens grew above sea level and were dissected by streams and rivers that flowed into the Almere (a large lake in the middle of what is now the Netherland). What was to become Waterland lay above the inlet called IJ and Amstelland lay to the south. The area was sparsely populated until around 1000 AD. Older centres of habitation are to be found on the higher ground -on sand- furthers west (Kennemerland) and southeast (Gooiland). Cultivation of the peatlands starts in the eleventh century. Waterland had been cultivated around 1300. In Amstelland this took longer due to the competition between the Earls of Holland and the Lords of Amestelle who served as bailiffs for the Bishops of Utrecht. Holland tried to expand at the expense of Utrecht by conquering the peatlands along the Amstel river. Waterland with its many small lakes was aptly named and lay within Holland just south of Friesland and originally also included the Zaanstreek (along the river Zaan) and the Schermer and Purmer (two large lakes).

Both Amstelland and Waterland were cultivated in a similar way by digging ditches at a right angle to a natural stream (Amstel or Zaan) or a man-made drainage channel (called wetering) to drain the peat and make it possible to plow the land. The direct consequence of draining the peatland is that it starts collapsing on itself thus sinking the ground. In combination with rising sea levels growing crops became impossible from the thirteenth century onwards. Also low earth banks had to be raised to protect the sinking land from flooding by the sea and also the former rivers. As a result of the sinking of the land the naturally low lying rivers slowly got raised above the level of the adjoining fields. This meant that on both sides of the river banks were raised and behind them ditches were dug to act as reservoirs from which the water was pumped by wind power into the watercourses that had become in effect drainage channels (boezemwater). Thus the landscape was inverted and so-called binnenpolders (land polders) were created.

In both Waterland and Amstelland we find polders as they are most commonly understood by foreigners: drained lakes. Such droogmakerijen (literally: made to be dry land) included both natural lakes as well as so-called veenplassen, large expanses of water that arose as a result of the extraction of peat for fuel. The lake-polders often have a rounded shape and were created by surrounding the lake with a large dike with a drainage channel (ringsloot) encircling it. A central ditch drains the new land that was once the lake floor. If the lake is very large several of such ditches were needed.

The floods that created the Zuiderzee created  a need for better flood defenses. Thus a sea dike was built along the IJ and the Zuiderzee shores. To close these dikes all natural streams had to be dammed. Only think of Zaandam, Monnikendam, Edam, Volendam, Durgerdam, Uitdam, Diemerdam, Nieuwendam and Amsterdam. Mostly these dams took the shape of large lock gates with a sluice to keep the waterways open for shipping. Where no lock was created a so-called Overtoom (portage) was constructed for hauling ships across a dike. Examples can be found near Zaandam (Westzaner Overtoom and Oostzaansche Overtoom) and in Amsterdam(Vaartsche Overtoom).

Ensuing floods enlarged existing lakes and created new ones as a result of a breach in the sea dike. The Buikslotermeer, Beemster, Diemermeer and Bijlmermeer are examples of such lakes. The Amstel river used to end at the Diemermeer. The present river that flows into the IJ at Amsterdam was created by digging a drainage channel from the lake to a small inlet on the IJ that was later dammed. The straight channel can still be recognised and also gave rise to the alternative name for the Diemermeer as Watergraafsmeer. Watergraaf literally means dug out channel.

An overview of the landscape of polders surrounding Amsterdam. Of the former lakes the year of impoldering is listed. In the Zaanstreek the polders are large and consist of a western and eastern section in the case of Polder Westzaan (1) and Polder Oostzaan (2). The  Polder Ilperveld (3) and Polder Landsmeer (4) don't have this feature. The Waterlandsche Polder (5) includes all the land within the sea dike.On the edge we find the Polder Buiksloot (6) and Grote Blauwe Polder (7). North of the Diemermeer we find the Overamstelpolder (8). Diemen lies in the Diemerpolder (9). Beyond the river Diemen we find the Gemeenschapspolder (10) and Aetsveldsche Polder (11). Along the rivers Angstel and Gein lie the Polder Baambrugge (12), Broekzijdsche Polder (13) and Polder Gein and Gaasp (14). Next to the Bijlemermeer we find the Polder Oost Bijlmer (15), Laanderpolder (17), Duivendrechtsche Polder (18) and Venserpolder (19). South of Ouderkerk lies the striking Polder de Ronde Hoep (16). North of the Amstelveensche Polder we find the Buitenveldertsche Polder (20), Stadspolder (21) and Riekerpolder (22). Around the Slotermeer we find the Gecombineerde Sloter en Middenveldsche Polders (23), the Osdorperpolder (24), Spieringhornerpolder (25) and Overbraker Polder (26).

The Zaanstreek is one of the oldest industrial areas in Western Europe. Once the Western part of Waterland it is now seen as distinct. As a result of the greater thickness of the peat layer the ground sank more and is therefore characterized by very wet and narrow strips of grasland between ditches. Zaandam was once subsidiary of both Oostzaan and Westzaan but grew from the 16th century onwards into the industrial satellite of Amsterdam catering for both shipyards and the whaling fleet as well as wood mills and food production. Hundreds of windmills stood on either side of the Zaan river. At its height in 1700 around 600 windmills were in use. Nowhere else was industrial activity concentrated in such a small area. The area was well known for its weaving mills, sail making, paper making, tobacco, paint production, candle factories, snuff production, cocoa roosting, chocolate making,  starch and bluing factories, sawing mills, bark mills, rope-making, smokehouses, cooperies, metalworking, whale oil distilleries, bulk trading and meat trade.

Festive Flicker

 

For many people today, Epiphany,  signifies the end of the festive period. Originally the celebration of the manifestation of the Savior was part of the Christmas festivities, but being at the end of this period took on a separate meaning that still resonates in the separate customs surrounding it. In the Low Countries and Germany the day is called the day of the three kings (Driekoningen / Dreikönigstag), a reference to the three Magi Balthasar, Melchior and Gaspar. In the Catholic parts of the Low Countries children went from door to door dressed as pint size Magi with little foil crowns and star shaped lanterns collecting candy as a reward for them singing carols. Nowadays this day is the day that people take down their Christmas decorations and get rid of the tree. In some places these trees are collected, piled up and set alight as celebratory midwinter fires (a convenient way to get rid of them...).

Happy New Year

Beyond the AUP, expanding Amsterdam along road and rail

The AUP Amsterdam of 1935 sought to plan the new city for the estimated population in the year 2000. As the several parts were elaborated in detailed urban plans reality forced the plans to be slightly changed. This was however foreseen in the AUP, as it was set up as a blotch plan with an indicative functional layout.

From the 1950s onwards the AUP was augmented to keep up with the developments in traffic, industry, commercial space and housing. The planned canal diversion north of the garden villages in the IJ-polders was dropped. Instead a semicircular new canal was planned around Amsterdam North.

The area between this new semicircular canal and the (garden) villages on the north side of the IJ was to be developed further to create a new urban satellite. With the AUP the focus of the urban planners had moved away from the suburban back to the urban, so the additions north of the low and small houses were seen as high-rise housing in a green landscaped setting as an intermediate to the open polder land beyond.

The augmented (and expanded) AUP of the 1960s is a true regional plan that draws the city as fanning out from the historic core around the Canal Belt creating suburban fingers very similar to well known German examples. Urban expansion is concentrated beyond the garden villages (north), in Zaandam (northwest), in Amstelveen (south), in the Bijlmermeer (southeast) and near existing towns (Badhoevedorp, Diemen, Ouderkerk, Zwanenburg) with some smaller developments.

A similar approach was taken to the southern expansion. Here a rural area belonging to the municipality of Weesperkarspel was transferred to Amsterdam in 1966. It included the deep Bijlmermeerpolder (a former lake empoldered in 1626) and the shallow Oost-Bijlmer and West-Bijlmer polders together with the Polder Gein en Gaasp.  This part of Amsterdam, officially called Amsterdam-Zuidoost (Amsterdam Southeast), is best known as Bijlmer, itself a foreshortening of Bijlmermeer. Building work for the Bijlmer started in 1966 on December 13. In 1968 the first residents moved into the new homes.

The design for the Bijlmer, drawn by a team under auspice of Siegfried Nassuth, was inspired by the ideas of CIAM: the functional city and Le Corbusier in particular. The central idea in this high-rise satellite was an almost absolute separation of all modes of transport by means of elevated roads and paths. The idea behind this was to prevent accidents and counter unsightly corners and urban fringes conform the ideas of the Swiss architect Le Corbusier who stated that mankind in the modern era had a right to a green, quiet and uncluttered living environment free of traffic.

In the original plans a motorway would dissect the area and several wards consisting of high-rise buildings would be created.  A height of ten building layers was the norm in both the northern and southern parts, with the exception of Reigersbos and Gein where 6 storey apartment block were envisaged. The best known part of the southeastern satellite are the honeycomb apartment blocks in the Bijlmermeer. Each ward (wijk) has been subdivided into neighbourhoods indicated by a letter (A, B, D, E, F, G, H and K). Originally the streets and apartmentbuildings would be named according to the letter of the neighbourhood. This principle has however been abandoned in the renewal of the area. South of the A9 motorway the southern part, known as Gaasperdam was divided into four wards: Holendrecht, Nellestein, Reigersbos and Gein. The neighbourhoods named L, M, N, P, R, S, T, V and W are located here. Much of the planned high-rise buildings were scrapped due to new insights and replaced by low-rise apartment blocks and terraced housing.

The new wards that were constructed around Amsterdam after 1965 aren't exclusively located within the municipal boundaries of this city. The second AUP resulted in the construction of housing in: Diemen-Noord (1), Diemen-Zuid and Duivendrecht (2) collectively known as Venserpolder, Bijlmermeer (3), Gaasperdam (4), Ouderkerk-Oost (5), Amstelveen-Zuid (6), Amstelveen-Oost (7), Akerveld Badhoevedorp (8), Zaandam-Oost (9), Molenwijk (10), Buiksloot (11), Buikslotermeer (12) and Nieuwendam (13). Another focus was providing industrial areas. The largest one would be concentrated in the harbour (H). Most of these sites were large scale like for instance, Bullewijk (w), Amstel 3 (iii) and Schiphol-Oost (S). Smaller in size were Zaandammerpolder (Z) and Vogelweide (V). Parks and recreational areas were also incorporated in the expansion plan. The Amsterdamse Bos (A) remained of regional importance. New were the parks in Amsterdam Southeast:  Bijlmerpark (B), Bijlmerweide and Diemerbos (D) and Gaasperpark (G) with the Gaasperplas (P) an artificial lake.

The whole of the Amsterdam Southeast satellite was meant to a model for future urbanisation and living. It was to be a showcase of the ultimate urban quarter for  modern living. The apartment were large, airy and light with easy access to Amsterdam, local amenities and ample green communal space. The dream was defeated by reality however. Within 10 years after completion of the first houses the area gained a reputation for social destitution an high crime rates. As a result of the development of Almere, the middleclass families never moved to the Bijlmer and problem families were relocated here. As a result mostly low skilled, poorly educated and often jobless people inhabited the area. From 1975 onwards large groups of immigrants from Surinam joined them. This reality was far removed from the ideals of the designers and their idealist vision of the modern city with its strict functional separation, turned out to be less than practical, rendering parts of the area deserted and dangerous after dark.

Of the iconic honeycomb-shaped apartment buildings only a few sections now remain. Most of the Bijlmermeer has been redesigned, abandoning the original ideas. Now rows of terraced housing replace the large slabs and the public greenery, replacing it with small gardens, tarmac and parking space. The result is a jumble of architectural ideas without much structure and without much personality: an example of the fractional approach to urban design where urban incidents and localized measures prevail that is now so prevalent. I find it a sign of weakness and an admission of failure to abandon designing the urban environment full stop as a reaction to the failure of the big ideas of the past.