Introduction

The Royal Palace, Amsterdam

The city of Amsterdam is largely below sea-level, and the land is primarily peat, marsh, and grasslands. These difficult building conditions gave rise to innovative building techniques, with the city employing a system of dikes, dunes, and canals to protect itself from changing sea levels and driving wood piles deep into the substrata to support brick buildings. For example, the Royal Palace (built in the 1600s) is supported by nearly 14,000 piles. Amsterdam has long utilized its connection to the ocean for commerce, and in its Golden Age in the 17 th century became the most powerful trading city in the world. Water still plays an integral part in the lives of city residents, as it touches their lives so much.

Amsterdam is also a growing city, and the current population of 743,000 expected to increase by 80,000 in the next 25 years (Amsterdam Department of Research and Statistics, 2006)). After experiencing a huge population drop in WWII, in which more than 100,000 residents were killed, the city rebuilt and population boomed. Amsterdam is a major gateway to Europe, though no longer as trade giant. Major industries include financial services and technology/biotechnology, and the city hosts a multi-lingual workforce which has grown by 10,000 in last five years. Companies such as ING, Shell, Philips, and Heineken are all based in Amsterdam. The city boasts a high quality of life for workers, and is a compact, easily traveled cosmopolitan center for Netherlands and all of Europe. Tourism accounts for 7 million visitors a year.

Heineken Brewery and Tourists Shopping on the Kalverstraat

Although the population growth has stabilized since the turn of the century, more people are moving into the urban cores, and a wealthy family demographic has grown. The question of where this new 'comfort' class (Kay, 2003) will live has proven vexing. Amsterdam does not want to grow into the Randstad, it's green agricultural heart. The city must also grow sustainably due to the fragile land patchwork they presently live on. What about development into the waterfront?

Borneo and Sporenburg are part of a large scale redevelopment of Amsterdam 's Eastern Docklands. The Docklands are comprised of four 'islands' and peninsulas: KNSM, Java, Borneo , and Sporenburg. The Docklands were a busy shipping wharf up until the 1970s, when much of the industry shifted southwest to Rotterdam (Ibelings, 2004). For the next 10-20 years the islands were home to nomads, artists, and some remaining rail uses. Amsterdam began redeveloping the area in the 1980s, starting on KNSM and Java. Much of the redevelopment was done under strict government watch, with city planners and housing corporations working closely with developers and investors. Borneo and Sporenburg were done in a different arrangement. An informal development group named New Deal, working with (and not under) city officials and developers, sought a master plan design for the sites. West 8 landscape architects were commissioned for the project, with assistance and input provided by Amsterdam's city council and Holland 's housing office. Plans were completed between 1992 to1996, and the project completely built in just four years (2000). The total housing to built on the Docklands project was 17,000 units.

Site Context Map of the Eastern Docklands