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A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

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Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#31

Post by DonHopkins »

jacquesm wrote: post #8

To give a Dutch perspective: Lots of Dutch people would not be found dead in Almere (founded in '76), for a long time it was basically a satellite city of Amsterdam where people went to sleep. Then in the mid 90's it started to change: companies realized that the daily traffic jam to Amsterdam in the morning and to Almere in the evening was a major obstacle, so why not relocate the company to Almere? And this caused…

I found an area of Almere that has a cluster of really weird unique architecture from around 1987 along De Realiteit:

Google Street View:

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.3921571,5.2180409,3a,90y,176...

(look up and down De Realiteit to see many freaky houses)

Polderblik:

http://polderblik.nl/

Campus (1987) -- Vertical Red Shipping Containers:

https://www.architectuurgidsalmere.nl/almere/campus

Cargo (1987) -- Yellow Porta Potties:

https://www.architectuurgidsalmere.nl/almere/cargo

De Naam van het Huis (1987) -- Half House with Watchtower:

https://www.architectuurgidsalmere.nl/almere/de-naam-van-het...

Circle (1987) -- Circular Hobbit House:

https://www.architectuurgidsalmere.nl/almere/cirkel

Many other weird ones:

https://www.architectuurgidsalmere.nl/almere/meerzicht

https://www.architectuurgidsalmere.nl/almere/macabine

You can see them all and more on the map of this Almere Architecture Guide:

https://www.architectuurgidsalmere.nl/

And there's another road called Aresstraat that contains rows of totally unique houses, reportedly so up-and-coming architects can try out their weird ideas. Here's a funky looking tilted level "House in House" designed by Marc Koehler in 2011, which was just up for sale for around 700,000 EUR.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Aresstraat+21,+1363+VJ+Alm...

(Look up and down Aresstraat at all the different architectural styles! Down the street a bit it flashes back in time to street views from 2009, before most of the neighborhood was even built, showing the wide open sand peppered by a few houses and construction sites.)

https://www.architectuurgidsalmere.nl/almere/house-house?fbc...

>PROJECT ARCHITECT(S): Marc Koehler; CLIENT: Privately; BUILDER: Ubink and Co BV; REALIZATION: 2011

>According to the architect, “House in house” is based on a reinterpretation of a traditional Dutch canal house with an attic. An arrangement of three 'boxes', which accommodate the necessary functions of sleeping, office and entrance, structures the interior space.

>The slanted attic window ensures a striking presence of the house in the streetscape. Here is the sleeping area with skylights to see stars and moon. The floor is placed horizontally, which is visible from the outside. The office is retracted on the first floor, with its own entrance via a spiral staircase. Living takes place in the residual space between the boxes. That space is a route with stairs that spiral upwards. What are usually the landings is here transformed into a series of spacious places, for hobbies, music, watching TV or eating. This design keeps living flexible and dynamic. The house is also equipped for new interpretations that people want to give to the concept of living.

Tour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WujRwW4_eMw

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#32

Post by jacquesm »

whazor wrote: post #26
jacquesm wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't as big a problem as some make it out to be. The dikes have always been a porous solution, not perfect, 'kwel' (water that seeps under the dike) has been there as long as there are dikes. But concentric circles of staged dikes are one way in which you could deal with this. It will require massive geo engineering but nothing on a scale that the Dutch have not done before. There are some voices that NL will h…

Countries with mountains are much more vulnerable against climate change and the extreme weather. Last extreme rain took away, via the rivers, many houses in Germany. Whereas The Netherlands is relatively safe as we are more downstream and also more prepared against river floods.

To some extent. There are some relatively narrow passages that have to carry extreme amounts of water, mostly in the south of the country where the river banks are steep. As soon as the river breaks out of that limited area it will flood the surrounding countryside which isn't all that well prepared.

You could see this during the flooding that destroyed those houses in Germany, it didn't go much better in NL, but fortunately on a smaller scale.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/96IGKw2NKQY?feature=oembed

Still, you are right that 'upstream' this problem can get much worse due to terrain geometry and lack of preparation, as well as building into areas that really belong to the river.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#33

Post by Mo3 »

imilk wrote: post #30

It's interesting - but it's hard for me to see this being the future of urban life when most of the city looks entirely suburban (not very walkable), separated from the main commercial area without bars/restaurants/shops in their own sub-neighborhoods. I would expect a key part of future urban life would include one of the most important parts of current urban life; walkability and a harmonious melding of commercial,…

I lived there for a year.

I think you forget that everyone owns a bicycle, everyone rides their bicycle everywhere, and almost every single street has a separated bicycle lane. There are more bicycle lanes than in any other country on earth (22,000 miles in a country ten times smaller than California) [1], there's even bicycle highways and intersections.

Public transport is exceptionally good as well. Everything is highly walkable and accessible, everything you want to do is doable and everywhere you want to go is reachable. You should check it out sometime, these pictures don't really show it.

(jacquesm in this thread is spot on too though. There's not that much life going on in Almere itself.)

[1] https://www.opencyclemap.org/?zoom=7&lat=51.48412&lon=8.0871...

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#34

Post by MomoXenosaga »

throwaway6734 wrote: post #19
FooBarWidget wrote: post #18

Unfortunately it is now uncertain whether any of this matters 100 years from now. It is expected that sea levels will rise by more than 2 meters, and that dykes will no longer work beyond an extra 2 meter extension, not because they can't be extended but because Dutch soil is too soft and seawater will just go under the dyke. Almere will probably be amongst the first to go. It seems nobody has proposed a solution, bu…

The US has somewhat similar problem: flood insurance is heavily subsidized by the federal government so the market doesn't remotely factor in future flooding risks into housing prices. There have recently been plans to raise prices but since Florida is such an important state to Federal elections there's a massive political hurdle

Imagine every American east coast city flooding at the same time. That's what would happen in the Netherlands if the levies break.

At least Florida can be abandoned in a worst case scenario and the US would continue to function.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#35

Post by sandworm101 »

Mo3 wrote: post #33
imilk wrote: post #30

It's interesting - but it's hard for me to see this being the future of urban life when most of the city looks entirely suburban (not very walkable), separated from the main commercial area without bars/restaurants/shops in their own sub-neighborhoods. I would expect a key part of future urban life would include one of the most important parts of current urban life; walkability and a harmonious melding of commercial,…

I lived there for a year. I think you forget that everyone owns a bicycle, everyone rides their bicycle everywhere, and almost every single street has a separated bicycle lane. There are more bicycle lanes than in any other country on earth (22,000 miles in a country ten times smaller than California ) [1], there's even bicycle highways and intersections. Public transport is exceptionally good as well. Everything is…

But every parking spot in the picture seems to have a car parked in it.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#36

Post by sandworm101 »

>> Around 60% of Oosterwold is set aside to support "urban agriculture", cutting the climate-change impact of food miles

I don't see how this helps. An urban farm is not nearly as efficient as a true industrial farm. They don't have the economies of scale. They are limited as to chemical use (both pesticides and fertilizer) and have to deal with noise complaints. Urban farms are also, nearly universally, fed by potable water sources which can never scale to appreciable food production (acre-feet rather than liters). If we actually want to produce food near consumers, urban farms are not the way. It only works using enclosed buildings, ugly industrial greenhouses, not pretty little fields between condos.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#37

Post by imilk »

Mo3 wrote: post #33
imilk wrote: post #30

It's interesting - but it's hard for me to see this being the future of urban life when most of the city looks entirely suburban (not very walkable), separated from the main commercial area without bars/restaurants/shops in their own sub-neighborhoods. I would expect a key part of future urban life would include one of the most important parts of current urban life; walkability and a harmonious melding of commercial,…

I lived there for a year. I think you forget that everyone owns a bicycle, everyone rides their bicycle everywhere, and almost every single street has a separated bicycle lane. There are more bicycle lanes than in any other country on earth (22,000 miles in a country ten times smaller than California ) [1], there's even bicycle highways and intersections. Public transport is exceptionally good as well. Everything is…

I've never been there and was just making a quick assessment by Google Maps. It is nice that you can bike anywhere, but I'm mostly seeing residential neighborhoods (~10 blocks wide of identical row homes) pretty spaced out around a town center without amenities in their area.

So in terms of meeting someone for a coffee/meal/beer/event it looks like you'll have to hop on a bicycle unless you want to go on a 20-30 minute walk past monotonous homes. Which is not that different than suburbs anywhere else.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#38

Post by mpol »

imilk wrote: post #30

It's interesting - but it's hard for me to see this being the future of urban life when most of the city looks entirely suburban (not very walkable), separated from the main commercial area without bars/restaurants/shops in their own sub-neighborhoods. I would expect a key part of future urban life would include one of the most important parts of current urban life; walkability and a harmonious melding of commercial,…

Almere is very walkable, just a bit boring. Cycling is okay too, although it needs a bit of work I think. In regards to cycling, it is not that popular in Almere.

Not sure why, it could be that rudimentary, half of the people is upper middle class that is doing everything by car, the other half was born in another country and could more easily find a house in Almere compared to Amsterdam but they don't share the cycling culture much.

Edit: And every neighbourhood has supermarkets and small fastfood and bar locations. It is not that different from other dutch cities.

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#39

Post by Mo3 »

imilk wrote: post #37
Mo3 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived there for a year. I think you forget that everyone owns a bicycle, everyone rides their bicycle everywhere, and almost every single street has a separated bicycle lane. There are more bicycle lanes than in any other country on earth (22,000 miles in a country ten times smaller than California ) [1], there's even bicycle highways and intersections. Public transport is exceptionally good as well. Everything is…

I've never been there and was just making a quick assessment by Google Maps. It is nice that you can bike anywhere, but I'm mostly seeing residential neighborhoods (~10 blocks wide of identical row homes) pretty spaced out around a town center without amenities in their area. So in terms of meeting someone for a coffee/meal/beer/event it looks like you'll have to hop on a bicycle unless you want to go on a 20-30 minu…

Of course there's going to be some level of separation between residential areas and other areas - but contrary to, for example the US, where you have to walk for miles or put your life in danger bicycling between a suburb and the city center - the distances are quite negligible and the space in between is friendly towards anything that is not a car.

Public transport intervals are measured in minutes, and unlike in the US, it not only connects the suburbs to the city center, but the suburbs to other suburbs as well.

Really, everything you want to do is doable and everywhere you want to go is reachable. I miss it.

Regarding coffee/meal/beer, there's little shops or cafes or restaurants mixed into the residential areas as well.

This video details the fantastic engineering very well: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP-G-inkkDg

This is specifically about differences between US and Europe but also a great watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K8KEoZwMRY

Re: A Dutch city testing the future of urban life

#40

Post by Mo3 »

sandworm101 wrote: post #35
Mo3 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lived there for a year. I think you forget that everyone owns a bicycle, everyone rides their bicycle everywhere, and almost every single street has a separated bicycle lane. There are more bicycle lanes than in any other country on earth (22,000 miles in a country ten times smaller than California ) [1], there's even bicycle highways and intersections. Public transport is exceptionally good as well. Everything is…

But every parking spot in the picture seems to have a car parked in it.

Of course there's still cars. They are just not used exclusively or frequently. If I remember the statistics correctly, in cities trips are made 30-45% by bicycle, 25-40% by public transport and the rest is cars.
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