Amsterdam miniweekend

Our pick for this mini weekend in Amsterdam: breakfast at Bagels and Beans, a cultural visit to the renewed Stedelijk Museum and finish at the Sundaymarket at Westergasfabriek moving from one place to another by the OV-fiets (public bike).

electric car

Also at Zuidpark offices: over 40 charging stations for electric cars, still saving for an electric car...a mini?

Urban Farming

Today I came across this recently opened, urban farming roof in Amsterdam (Zuidpark). Its on top of  the converted office buildings (left behind by V&D) and offers a great place for lunch or drinks. http://www.zuidpark.nl/tag/urban-farming

social mapping

Maps by Eric Fischer 

Erik Fischer creates interesting maps combining city layouts with social media; his maps and much more can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/walkingsf/  With the maps he shows the use of space by tourists versus local people or the use of the city by different ethnicities. These are just 2 examples, I'm sure that many more interesting combinations can be found!

office bubble

Amsterdam has the highest rate of empty offices in Europe with 23%!

BNSP young proffesionals organises interesting events with young people involved in the urban development in the Netherlands. In november I attended a meeting about the "office planning bubble". The 3 speakers gave their view on this rising issue from a research, government and the market perspective. My main 3 lessons:

1. The value of the property is still to high to invest in transformation of the buildings, however this might soon changes if investors reassess their real estate. Some of my projects in The Hague show how a good transformation can look like such as the Caballero Fabriek, Labs55 and het Ondernemershuis! I would love to do more projects like this and also look at new functions as residential or retail.

2. Urban regions need to collaborate! Individual cities in the region should jointly consider their share of expected new office and not compete with each other on new office developments. NICIS: Publicatie 'Ruimte ruilen. Regionale samenwerking als oplossing voor de aanpak van leegstaande kantoren’ L. Jansen-Janssen

3. The labour force will not increase, it is wishful thinking that empty offices will become occupied in their original function.

container projects

They are a permanent feature of the modern city. In Macha they are refurbished into computerrooms and serve to link rural communities to the internet http://link.net.zm/ In the Netherlands the container projects are abound in the creative industry examples from an office at NDSM and F.A.S.T. (Free Architecture Surf Terrain), made by Refunc. The 24 containers of the Puma store currently sail around the world.

snow

The light of the snow and the beautiful views of the cityscape make me feel good! Last weekend we stayed in Amsterdam to meet and help some friends and moreover to spend some time together before I am off to Zambia! Today I found this beautiful map about Amsterdam from Jan Rothuizen.