Book Launch Amsterdam Urban Development 1975–2025 – Paper Dome

Last Thursday, we presented the book Amsterdam Urban Development 1975–2025 in a packed Paper Dome. In the middle of the K-neighbourhood, author and urban planner Maurits De Hoog talked about the creative process. How do you summarise 50 years of urban planning in one book?

Then former aldermen Duco Stadig, Maarten van Poelgeest, Eric van den Burg and Marieke van Doorninck, led by moderator Natasja Van Den Berg, entered into a conversation about the past 50 years. Themes such as economic crises, space for creative free spaces and the role of good-quality public space passed by. How do they look back on their aldermanship, what are they most proud of – or do they lose sleep over? – and how do the former aldermen look ahead to the next five decades?

Want to know more about Amsterdam’s past, present and future? The book is on sale from now on in your (local) bookshops and online📚

With thanks to: 3X3 UNITES for their hospitality at the Paper Dome and Municipality of Amsterdam

About the book

In Amsterdam Urban Development 1975–2025 urban designer Maurits de Hoog describes how the city has changed over the past fifty years, from a port and industrial city in decline into a fast-growing metropolis. Old districts have been regenerated, the city has been expanded with compact low- and high-rise developments, and former docklands have been transformed into new residential areas. Business services have largely moved to the urban periphery, including to the Zuidas. At the same time, the city centre has evolved into a vibrant meeting place with a concentration of culture, hospitality and tourism together with new, innovative businesses. The transformations testify to the city’s resilience but also entail a variety of challenges: can Amsterdam remain a liveable and accessible city? De Hoog gives an absorbing account of how urban development and spatial planning are formulating responses to the turbo-charged growth. He concludes with a look to the future: what might the next fifty years have in store for Amsterdam?