Time Out Amsterdam heeft ons gevraagd voor haar City Future Special (January Issue) een toekomstvisie te presenteren op Amsterdam in 2020. Naast LAgroup zijn vier andere creatieve bureaus – KesselsKramer, Benthem Crouwel, Concrete en onze vrienden van Non-fiction – gevraagd zich in een visie uit te spreken over het Amsterdam van over tien jaar. In onze visie houden we een pleidooi voor meer groots denken in het ontwikkelen van de stad, door een betere inzet van de creativiteit van kunst, cultuur en leisure. Meer grand projects op dit gebied leiden tot een stad met meer verbeeldingskracht en onderscheidend vermogen. Als voorbeeld presenteren we twee fictieve grand projects voor het ontsluiten van Waterland en het creëren van een nieuw soort stadspark: The People’s Park.

Nieuwsgierig?

Wanted: Grand Projects

Where have the mavericks gone with their creative ideas? Amsterdam has become too much of a bureaucrat, favoring infrastructure and business. But a Noord-Zuidlijn or Zuidas won’t place us among the top European cities. What Amsterdam needs, is to feel the creativity of arts and leisure running through it veins again. We need grand projects, a next Eiffel Tower or Woodstock, which can revitalize the city with acupunctural intensity. Because the only way to stand out in 2020, is to have bold and inspiring ideas in 2010. Let’s dream up ten breakthrough projects that will push the city to the limits of its imagination, but are interesting enough to at least seriously consider. Here’s two.

Zeppelinning Waterland – the ultimate Dutch polder experience

God created the world, but the Dutch made Holland. As land creators, we enjoy a global guru reputation. But how come all tourists visit the Rijksmuseum, ooh-ing and aah-ing the stunning Dutch landscapes by Vermeer and contemporaries, but never go see them in real? Let’s make the Museumplein the place to hop on for a two-hour Zeppelin-tour of Waterland, a stone’s throw north of Amsterdam. From above, the watery structure of these polders is breathtaking. A local lunch (Beemstercheese and buttermilk!) completes the ultimate Dutch polder experience. Dykes, ditches, windmills, farming communities frozen in time and incredible flattness – all the heritage is already there. We just need some grand thinking to make our Dutch polders the next Swiss Alps (which are melting, anyway).

The People’s Park

The People’s Park – bottom-up creativity that changes the city

In the digital age more people than ever are sharing and collaborating creative ideas. Let’s use some of this new mentality make Amsterdam less a top-down planning machine, and more a place to participate. Our creativity and can-do mentality can be the ingredients for a new public space called The People’s Park. Everyone can buy one or more pixels (5×5 m² plots) and lend them to whichever friend, artist or institution need it for their temporary projects. Just read the proposals online and vote with your pixels. If enough agree, the summer could bring us an urban garden and artBBQfestival and the winter a wooden sauna village. The People’s Park is Lowlands meets Westerpark, with the grid as ultimate democratizer. Amsterdam, are you ready for this?

Illustrations: Jacques Abelman