Tue, 29 May 2012
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Dear author of Almere, a new suburbia.
I would like to share with you my own impression of almere after having spent a day there.
A first glance of Almere is offered when approaching it by train from Amsterdam. Several minutes before the arrival at central station you find yourself traversing a landscape of building sites. Almere is still busily growing.
A negative impression of the place can easily be sensed in the early hours of the day. Indeed, before lunch, even the city centre (Almere-centrum) fits the description of a ghost town. There is not a cat about. It feels that everyone has left to the capital and that those left behind are avoiding coming out into the open. Most of the shops are closed and the extensive, main street that leads from the station to the lake is deserted, but for a man with no home who slowly pushes a trolley of belongings. Is this the image of a city of the future? I slowly am being convinced that this place is really just a museum of contemporary architecture as I walk between the works of Will Alsop, Claus en Kaan, OMA, Christian de Portzamparc, David Chipperfield, SANAA (…) and the cranes that rise amongst these, only promising more treats for eye.
But midday strikes and it is as though the city un-pauses. All of those in offices come out to commercial streets to meet friends in restaurants and school kids run onto the slanted squares with skateboards. There is a feeling of movement and action where each individual has a mission and is not just hanging about. I feel unnoticed by the crowd. It feels like a small city.
The other cores like Almere-Haven and Almere-Buiten offer a smaller village experience with local commerces of deli’s and fishmongers rather than chain retails. There are big parks which surprisingly are never empty: children playing in the sand pit, people biking two by two. In Haven the residential architecture is bleakly dark and outdated but busy bike lanes that intertwine between the houses show that it is non the less kept alive by its inhabitants. Buiten however is richly divers from street to street, lined with new and colourful housing (one area is even called ‘regenboogburg’ meaning rainbow area). The distinction between the neighbouring cores is unmistakable. An infrastructural identity has been achieved and this in turn is translated to its inhabitants who chose to live in the area that reflects them best. Although the omnipresent naming of streets, areas and squares in relation to themes is irritatingly artificial at first, after a day they become natural sounds that only make identification and navigation unproblematic.
Almere is on the boarders of an extended town and a city. It still belongs to a generation of villes nouvelles which came into existence purely and simply to ease a housing shortage. After many years of struggling with its identity of an assemblage of living environments, Almere is still the counter-form of the major city: it provides what the city lacks, but lacks what the city offers. The centre has not reached a great enough activity, especially at night when the streets are abandoned at latest by 10:30. It still needs to embellish itself to distinguish itself radically from the other core centres. But the centre is established enough to de-qualify Almere as a suburb of Amsterdam. What it requires is some more time to develop a greater permanent population: establishing its own university and a more prominent business district in the center to maintain its workforce within.
A woman who has lived here for 20 years expresses how she is appalled by the construction of the 20 floor high ‘silverline’ building along the waterfront. Indeed many of its apartments display ‘to rent’ signs. Some inhabitants find the planning of the centre a disaster while others admire it. The population is not passive to their environment and it is their engagement that creates a life in the community, just as Van Klingeren had predicted. After 30 years, the mistakes of the past are being recognized. A history is appearing
i would be interested in hearing about others impressions of the town.
sincerly,
camille
We have 2012 now. How is Almere today? I`m taking into consideration this city when I move to NL. Thanks for any update :-)
Dear author of Almere, a new suburbia.
I would like to share with you my own impression of almere after having spent a day there.
A first glance of Almere is offered when approaching it by train from Amsterdam. Several minutes before the arrival at central station you find yourself traversing a landscape of building sites. Almere is still busily growing.
A negative impression of the place can easily be sensed in the early hours of the day. Indeed, before lunch, even the city centre (Almere-centrum) fits the description of a ghost town. There is not a cat about. It feels that everyone has left to the capital and that those left behind are avoiding coming out into the open. Most of the shops are closed and the extensive, main street that leads from the station to the lake is deserted, but for a man with no home who slowly pushes a trolley of belongings. Is this the image of a city of the future? I slowly am being convinced that this place is really just a museum of contemporary architecture as I walk between the works of Will Alsop, Claus en Kaan, OMA, Christian de Portzamparc, David Chipperfield, SANAA (…) and the cranes that rise amongst these, only promising more treats for eye.
But midday strikes and it is as though the city un-pauses. All of those in offices come out to commercial streets to meet friends in restaurants and school kids run onto the slanted squares with skateboards. There is a feeling of movement and action where each individual has a mission and is not just hanging about. I feel unnoticed by the crowd. It feels like a small city.
The other cores like Almere-Haven and Almere-Buiten offer a smaller village experience with local commerces of deli’s and fishmongers rather than chain retails. There are big parks which surprisingly are never empty: children playing in the sand pit, people biking two by two. In Haven the residential architecture is bleakly dark and outdated but busy bike lanes that intertwine between the houses show that it is non the less kept alive by its inhabitants. Buiten however is richly divers from street to street, lined with new and colourful housing (one area is even called ‘regenboogburg’ meaning rainbow area). The distinction between the neighbouring cores is unmistakable. An infrastructural identity has been achieved and this in turn is translated to its inhabitants who chose to live in the area that reflects them best. Although the omnipresent naming of streets, areas and squares in relation to themes is irritatingly artificial at first, after a day they become natural sounds that only make identification and navigation unproblematic.
Almere is on the boarders of an extended town and a city. It still belongs to a generation of villes nouvelles which came into existence purely and simply to ease a housing shortage. After many years of struggling with its identity of an assemblage of living environments, Almere is still the counter-form of the major city: it provides what the city lacks, but lacks what the city offers. The centre has not reached a great enough activity, especially at night when the streets are abandoned at latest by 10:30. It still needs to embellish itself to distinguish itself radically from the other core centres. But the centre is established enough to de-qualify Almere as a suburb of Amsterdam. What it requires is some more time to develop a greater permanent population: establishing its own university and a more prominent business district in the center to maintain its workforce within.
A woman who has lived here for 20 years expresses how she is appalled by the construction of the 20 floor high ‘silverline’ building along the waterfront. Indeed many of its apartments display ‘to rent’ signs. Some inhabitants find the planning of the centre a disaster while others admire it. The population is not passive to their environment and it is their engagement that creates a life in the community, just as Van Klingeren had predicted. After 30 years, the mistakes of the past are being recognized. A history is appearing
i would be interested in hearing about others impressions of the town.
sincerly,
camille
We have 2012 now. How is Almere today? I`m taking into consideration this city when I move to NL. Thanks for any update :-)
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