Texst: Karin Koolen
Photography: Kick Smeets
Cityplot Buiksloterham is an open, actively developing district with buildings going up block by block at a steady rate. As an area development, the project is widely regarded as being ahead of its time. But why is this so? What is unique about Cityplot? To find out the answers to these questions and more, we visited Studioninedots for a chat with Albert Herder, project initiator and architect.
Albert Herder is sitting at the centre of a long table in a consultation room at Studioninedots. The papers from his last PowerPoint presentation are spread out in front of him and he picks one up – an aerial photograph of Leiden’s historic city centre.
‘Old city centres actually already have everything you need. While new construction projects have often become carbon copies of each other over the years, old city centres are host to a great diversity of functions. Housing, work premises, facilities... We never used to have large property development companies – instead, people did the building themselves. For example, a merchant might build a house, and there would be a monastic community next door. This wasn’t decreed by some higher power or determined by a developer – it was something that happened slowly and organically from within the community. The result is a durable social fabric. You can see this in our old city centre as well, with millionaires and students living side by side along the canals.’
Herder taps the paper with his finger. ‘And that idea – the city emerging slowly without a master plan imposed by a higher authority – has been the guiding principle for Cityplot Buiksloterham.’
Construction freeze
The cityplot concept came to Buiksloterham in 2011. Herder: ‘We initially designed three “plots”. They were partly social housing, which was rare in Buiksloterham back then, and partly for private sale. Because there was a construction freeze at the time, we were able to take the time to carefully consider everything and set it all up gradually. It was a little like placing building blocks one by one – there was no hurry, so it also didn’t matter if parts were left undeveloped for a while.’
But once the plans were ready, the tide had turned and various parties were scrambling to secure a plot as quickly as possible. Herder smiles: ‘Not much came of the slow city in the end.’
‘Cityplot is an actively learning urban district’
‘Cityplot is an actively learning urban district,’ says the architect, ‘in which diversity, locality, collectivity, adaptability and circularity are inextricably intertwined.’
It’s clear to anyone who takes a walk around Cityplot Buiksloterham. There are spacious lots occupied by very diverse building blocks, designed to be easily adaptable over time. Courtyards and alleyways, and social housing alongside independent builders and private owners. Stichting Philadelphia Zorg has found a spot here, where people distanced from the labour market run a launderette and repair bicycles. Social cohesion is a key aspect.
‘The foundation for a social, inclusive living community within a block is already laid during construction,’ says Herder. ‘There is a great demand for this. Increasingly, residential structures are appearing in which the residents themselves have a say in the construction, share facilities together, take care of each other and live as sustainably as possible. They have had enough of the isolation and increased individualism that are features of living in the city.’
Each block comes with an urban activator – a kind of community centre – on the ground floor. ‘We have also designed Cityplot in a ring structure with a square at the heart. This means there is no back to it, and we do not shut anyone out.’
‘The foundation for a social, inclusive living community within a block is already laid during construction’
Testing ground for
sustainable living
Sustainability and circularity are integral to Cityplot. Herder: ‘It’s great that Cityplot is a testing ground for these concepts. Just like Schoonschip, which is a floating ecological residential area in the Johan van Hasseltkanaal. We are working together on generating green energy and Cityplot is completely “rainproof” – rainwater is buffered in many places and is drained away slowly at ground level to the canal. There is also a recycling centre for construction materials.’
There are traffic restrictions throughout the area, and the two car parks are built above ground for sustainability purposes. The idea behind this is that a below-ground parking area will be useless in a car-free future. Herder thinks it won’t be long before the number of cars diminishes. ‘In any case, Cityplot has been designed for both housing and work, with every investor being obliged to establish a significant work unit on the ground floor of the buildings. But the diversity of people, destinations and activities will make car sharing increasingly beneficial. The same goes for energy: if you share energy in a diverse environment, you automatically create a resilient system with a less uniform burden.’
These days, all of the municipality’s tenders are committed to sustainable, nature-inclusive and circular construction. For more great examples, visit openresearch.amsterdam.
Sixteen contractors
Knowing what he knows now, what might Herder have done differently? ‘Fewer contractors,’ he says. ‘There are now sometimes up to sixteen contractors working on one plot. This is awkward and creates delays. Cityplot can now also be found in other cities – Groningen, Utrecht, Arnhem – and things are being handled differently there, based on our advice. You can build yourself, but we assign you a contractor.’
Another focal point is densification. ‘Ground is scarce in Amsterdam. How can we densify the city more quickly while retaining the quality of Buiksloterham? This is an issue I recently discussed with Paco Bunnik from the municipality. This Cityplot has been a very valuable experiment, but if we’re to repeat it elsewhere, we will have to do things a little differently. At least when it comes to a large city like Amsterdam, with a housing shortage.’
Paco Bunnik has been the urban planning supervisor for Buiksloterham for the past six years. He is enthusiastic about Cityplot. So much so, that the lessons learned at Cityplot are now being incorporated into the broader plans for Buiksloterham. Paco: ‘This was a very new way of working for the municipality. Instead of controlling the design process ourselves or receiving instructions from higher up, we opened our minds to new work methods right from the start. The municipal team was now part of a design team consisting of external architects with their finger on the Buiksloterham pulse. Residents were also substantially involved in the process. And that turned out to be extremely inspiring! When you bring the right people together, the right things happen. And when I walk through Cityplot now, I can feel that it's going to work.’
Herder confesses that he sometimes gets rather tired of hearing the familiar phrase ‘diverse construction’. ‘The project is not just about having a variety of sizes of homes and a cafe on the ground floor. We have to strive for genuine cohesion, and you can achieve that with a really good floor plan and by creating space for everyone: young and old, social housing occupants, independent builders and cooperatives.’
Your house is your home, but your city is your life, argues Herder. ‘Or at least, that’s how it should be. You go outside for a walk, have a coffee at the corner, bump into friends. The city is basically your living room. That's what we wanted to create with Cityplot, with hospitality, amenities and social features. So that you could step outside and feel at home, proud and involved. As a designer, you can achieve that by supporting people in executing their own ideas, and not by imposing everything upon them from the top down.’ With the old city as a source of inspiration? Herder laughs. ‘Indeed – I couldn’t make it any more complicated than that.’
Living room
Text: Karin Koolen
Photography: Kick Smeets
Cityplot Buiksloterham is an open, actively developing district with buildings going up block by block at a steady rate. As an area development, the project is widely regarded as being ahead of its time. But why is this so? What is unique about Cityplot? To find out the answers to these questions and more, we visited Studioninedots for a chat with Albert Herder, project initiator and architect.
Albert Herder is sitting at the centre of a long table in a consultation room at Studioninedots. The papers from his last PowerPoint presentation are spread out in front of him and he picks one up – an aerial photograph of Leiden’s historic city centre.
‘Old city centres actually already have everything you need. While new construction projects have often become carbon copies of each other over the years, old city centres are host to a great diversity of functions. Housing, work premises, facilities... We never used to have large property development companies – instead, people did the building themselves. For example, a merchant might build a house, and there would be a monastic community next door. This wasn’t decreed by some higher power or determined by a developer – it was something that happened slowly and organically from within the community. The result is a durable social fabric. You can see this in our old city centre as well, with millionaires and students living side by side along the canals.’
Herder taps the paper with his finger. ‘And that idea – the city emerging slowly without a master plan imposed by a higher authority – has been the guiding principle for Cityplot Buiksloterham.’
Construction freeze
The cityplot concept came to Buiksloterham in 2011. Herder: ‘We initially designed three “plots”. They were partly social housing, which was rare in Buiksloterham back then, and partly for private sale. Because there was a construction freeze at the time, we were able to take the time to carefully consider everything and set it all up gradually. It was a little like placing building blocks one by one – there was no hurry, so it also didn’t matter if parts were left undeveloped for a while.’
But once the plans were ready, the tide had turned and various parties were scrambling to secure a plot as quickly as possible. Herder smiles: ‘Not much came of the slow city in the end.’
Testing ground for
sustainable living
Sustainability and circularity are integral to Cityplot. Herder: ‘It’s great that Cityplot is a testing ground for these concepts. Just like Schoonschip, which is a floating ecological residential area in the Johan van Hasseltkanaal. We are working together on generating green energy and Cityplot is completely “rainproof” – rainwater is buffered in many places and is drained away slowly at ground level to the canal. There is also a recycling centre for construction materials.’
There are traffic restrictions throughout the area, and the two car parks are built above ground for sustainability purposes. The idea behind this is that a below-ground parking area will be useless in a car-free future. Herder thinks it won’t be long before the number of cars diminishes. ‘In any case, Cityplot has been designed for both housing and work, with every investor being obliged to establish a significant work unit on the ground floor of the buildings. But the diversity of people, destinations and activities will make car sharing increasingly beneficial. The same goes for energy: if you share energy in a diverse environment, you automatically create a resilient system with a less uniform burden.’
These days, all of the municipality’s tenders are committed to sustainable, nature-inclusive and circular construction.
For more great examples, visit openresearch.amsterdam.
Sixteen contractors
Knowing what he knows now, what might Herder have done differently? ‘Fewer contractors,’ he says. ‘There are now sometimes up to sixteen contractors working on one plot. This is awkward and creates delays. Cityplot can now also be found in other cities – Groningen, Utrecht, Arnhem – and things are being handled differently there, based on our advice. You can build yourself, but we assign you a contractor.’
Another focal point is densification. ‘Ground is scarce in Amsterdam. How can we densify the city more quickly while retaining the quality of Buiksloterham? This is an issue I recently discussed with Paco Bunnik from the municipality. This Cityplot has been a very valuable experiment, but if we’re to repeat it elsewhere, we will have to do things a little differently. At least when it comes to a large city like Amsterdam, with a housing shortage.’
Paco Bunnik has been the urban planning supervisor for Buiksloterham for the past six years. He is enthusiastic about Cityplot. So much so, that the lessons learned at Cityplot are now being incorporated into the broader plans for Buiksloterham. Paco: ‘This was a very new way of working for the municipality. Instead of controlling the design process ourselves or receiving instructions from higher up, we opened our minds to new work methods right from the start. The municipal team was now part of a design team consisting of external architects with their finger on the Buiksloterham pulse. Residents were also substantially involved in the process. And that turned out to be extremely inspiring! When you bring the right people together, the right things happen. And when I walk through Cityplot now, I can feel that it's going to work.’
Want to know more?
Herder confesses that he sometimes gets rather tired of hearing the familiar phrase ‘diverse construction’. ‘The project is not just about having a variety of sizes of homes and a cafe on the ground floor. We have to strive for genuine cohesion, and you can achieve that with a really good floor plan and by creating space for everyone: young and old, social housing occupants, independent builders and cooperatives.’
Your house is your home, but your city is your life, argues Herder. ‘Or at least, that’s how it should be. You go outside for a walk, have a coffee at the corner, bump into friends. The city is basically your living room. That's what we wanted to create with Cityplot, with hospitality, amenities and social features. So that you could step outside and feel at home, proud and involved. As a designer, you can achieve that by supporting people in executing their own ideas, and not by imposing everything upon them from the top down.’
With the old city as a source of inspiration? Herder laughs. ‘Indeed – I couldn’t make it any more complicated than that.’
‘The foundation for a social, inclusive living community within a block is already laid during construction’
‘Cityplot is an actively learning urban district,’ says the architect, ‘in which diversity, locality, collectivity, adaptability and circularity are inextricably intertwined.’
It’s clear to anyone who takes a walk around Cityplot Buiksloterham. There are spacious lots occupied by very diverse building blocks, designed to be easily adaptable over time. Courtyards and alleyways, and social housing alongside independent builders and private owners. Stichting Philadelphia Zorg has found a spot here, where people distanced from the labour market run a launderette and repair bicycles. Social cohesion is a key aspect.
‘The foundation for a social, inclusive living community within a block is already laid during construction,’ says Herder. ‘There is a great demand for this. Increasingly, residential structures are appearing in which the residents themselves have a say in the construction, share facilities together, take care of each other and live as sustainably as possible. They have had enough of the isolation and increased individualism that are features of living in the city.’
Each block comes with an urban activator – a kind of community centre – on the ground floor. ‘We have also designed Cityplot in a ring structure with a square at the heart. This means there is no back to it, and we do not shut anyone out.’
‘Cityplot is an actively learning urban district’
Living room