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.

Christmas Cheer

De dark days around Christmas is when, for centuries now, people celebrate the light. The winter solstice has been an important event for many peoples through the ages. The Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a carnival-like festival with drinking, eating, candlelit ceremonies and gift giving. There was a holiday for all people (even slaves) from all work. Also no war could be declared during Saturnalia. Rings a bell doesn't it?

Planting Pansies

With the daffodils and crocuses planted in the large pots, the outlook from the sitting room was rather bare. So I decided to buy a tray of Pansies at the market. I -of course- opted for the brightest variety available with lovely tangerine blooms.

The name pansy is derived from the French pensée and originally indicated the viola as a symbol of loving remembrance. Nowadays the term pansy is used for the group of large-flowered hybrids grown as annual bedding plants, whilst the term viola or violet is reserved for the smaller annuals and perennials, some of which are indigenous. One of the parent plants of the modern pansy is heartsease (Viola tricolor). Pansies with their round overlapping petals and face or nectar stripes date from the 1830s. They can be propagated from cuttings, but are most often grown from seed. The modern hybrids don't come true from seed though as most are F1 or F2 hybrids.

AUP Amsterdam, a practical application of CIAM-principles

Ever since the explosive growth of Amsterdam in de nineteenth century the city has almost continually needed to expand. Expansion was often piecemeal. New urban districts were added to the existing urban fabric and connected to it by new roads. These partial expansions are very much a part of the radial city, an urban model where growth is pushed outwards along arterial roads. Some of these district are well known (i.e. Plan-Zuid by Berlage), most however consisted of rather poorly built housing comprising of tenement blocks with small apartments. The spread of regional planning, as part of the ideas of the Garden City Movement, coincided in the Netherlands with the spread of Modernism. The same is true for Belgium, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. The 1903 urban expansion plan for Amsterdam was the first modern regional plan for the capital of the Netherlands.  Firstly the planners looked towards the north where the new IJ-polders were located. In 1910 the four main functions of the city were formulated by Werner Hegemann as housing (wohnen), industrial (arbeiten), leisure (erholung) and transport (verkehr). The regional plan for Amsterdam was mainly focused on new roads, new railways and new industrial areas (harbours included) and less on housing.

A city like Amsterdam could only keep growing by annexing land beyond the city limits. The first such annexation had taken place in 1896, allowing the city to grow westwards and expand in the south and east. The city was quickly filling the new land around it with new housing and factories. At the same time Amsterdam expanded into the IJ by backfilling behind wicker dykes with dredging slush to raise new islands. The turning point came with the annexation of a number of adjoining municipalities (Randgemeenten) in 1921 when Sloten, Watergraafsmeer, Buiksloot, Nieuwendam, Ransdorp and parts of Westzaan, Zaandam, Oostzaan, Diemen, Ouder-Amstel and Nieuwe-Amstel (now Amstelveen) became part of Amsterdam.

The planers estimated that the city would grow to 960,000 inhabitants by 2000 (in reality the figure would be only 731,000) and welcomed the new area as ample space for expanding the city to accommodate these future inhabitants. The municipal planners started the ambitious task of drafting a General Expansion Plan (Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan*) by creating the new Department of Urban Expansion and Development within the Department of Public Works in 1928. They started by compiling data on the future development of the harbour, factories, industrial activity, traffic and demographics.

The AUP was drafted between 1933 and '35 by Cornelis van Eesteren and Theo van Lohuizen. Their plan bears a strong influence of the building experiments -model housing- of the modernist movement (Neues Bauen) in Germany and was to a lesser extent inspired by the Garden City Movement. The AUP was one of the first opportunities to implement the ideas that had been developed within CIAM**. The AUP was an equally great influence on the ideas developed within the CIAM forum.

The AUP projected on present day Amsterdam. Large parts of the plan were executed along the lines of the plan. A big exception is the harbour. The harbour basins and the canal diversion have not been executed in the way that was indicated by the plans. The parks and recreational areas, including allotment gardens are all more or less where they should be according to the plan. The housing was also executed along the lines of the global plan.

The AUP treats Amsterdam as a functional city comprising of four main functions: housing (wonen), commercial (werken) and recreation (recreatie), all woven together by traffic (verkeer). According to Van Eesteren, who was the president of CIAM between 1930 and 1947, the compound parts of the urban environment should be organized in an organic and functional manner, like the organs in a human body. The AUP was a global plan (plan op hoofdlijnen) that gave a projection of the planned expansion as a series of maps, detailed information, commentary notes and a number of themed supplements.

Prior to WW2 only a part of the plan was executed, most was developed during the 1950s. For each functional colour block on the map a detailed urban design had to be made. This resulted in separate plans for Buitenveldert (south), Watergraafsmeer (east), Bos en Lommer (west) and most famously Slotermeer, Slotervaart, Geuzenveld, Overtoomseveld and Osdorp (together the so-called Western Garden Cities). These "garden cities" were morphologically far removed from the original garden cities of Letchworth and Welwyn, but should be seen as a modernist continuation of the ideas of separation of function an planning along lines of communication (transportation) that are indeed central to the ideas of the Garden City Movement.

The AUP lead to  a considerable expansion of the city of Amsterdam with new housing in Buitenveldert (1), Watergraafsmeer (2), Bos en Lommer (3), Slotervaart (4), Overtoomseveld (5), Slotermeer (6), Geuzenveld (7) and Osdorp (8). The regional plan also included an existing lake the Nieuwe Meer (N), as well as a new lake called the Sloterplas (P). On the edge of the latter the Sloterpark (S) was built. Other parks include: Rembrandt Park (R), Beatrix Park (B), Amstel Park (A) and Flevopark (F). The AUP also included two areas outside of the municipal boundaries: the Amsterdamse Bos (9), a large woodland park planted in the 1930 and Schiphol Airport (10) located in the Haarlemmermeerpolder.

All urban quarters developed from the AUP have been designed in a similar vocabulary of repetitive housing units, green belts, large open spaces, a focus on social interaction of the inhabitants, the separation of slow and fast traffic etcetera. Each area has a distinctive street plan. To prevent the soulless succession of rows of houses - all too common in German Siedlungen - the housing strip was transform into a pattern of blocks angled around a central green space (hoven).

*Although the Algemeen Uitbreidingsplan, or AUP, of Amsterdam is very well known because of its direct link with CIAM, two other cities in the Netherlands had such a plan drafted. The AUP-Groot Rotterdam (1928) and AUP-Groot Eindhoven (1930) were actually forerunners to the AUP-Amsterdam (1935). The importance of the regional plans cannot be underestimated as these three cities are now still the economic centres of the Netherlands.

** Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne, abbreviated to CIAM, was founded in 1928 and disbanded in 1959 with the objective of spreading the principles of the Modernist Movement in all the main domains of design (architecture, landscape architecture, urbanism and industrial design).

Funky Fungi

Now that we've had some cold nights, most seasonal mushrooms have disappeared. Only a few very small mushrooms can still be found in warm pockets throughout the city. Most of the mushrooms now seen are the woody conks, the fruiting bodies of Polypores.

Polypores are a group of fungi often known as bracket fungi or shelf fungi, due to the shape of their fruiting bodies. Unlike agaric mushrooms these mushrooms form fruiting bodies with pores or tubes on the underside. Some species form seasonal fruiting bodies, many however produce hard and woody conks that increase in size each year. As with all fungi most of the life form goes unseen.

Most polypores live on decaying wood and can be found on tree trunks and branches. Some live in the soil as mycorrhiza (where they form a codependent partnership with trees and shrubs). Some polypores grow on living trees, most do the tree no harm as they feed on the core wood of the trunk, but some can ruin large trees (for instance The Artist's Bracket).