Designing Randstad 2040

Designing Randstad 2040 is the second publication in the Design and Politics series. The series is an initiative by the Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, and sheds light on the interplay between spatial design and politics.
This book focuses on the application of design to planning in the Randstad con-urbation. In the spring of 2008, a number of urban planners, architects and landscape architects took part in a series of workshops which were headed by Yttje Feddes, Matthijs Bouw, Hilde Blank and Jan Brouwer. Their purpose was to consider spatial options for the western part of the Netherlands in pre-paration for the Randstad 2040 Structural Vision. Sketching, designing, discussing, cogitating and experimenting, the workshop participants sought alternative scenarios in which the Randstad could function sustainably as one of Europe’s top economic and cultural regions.
The design process, described and richly illustrated in this book, yielded three exciting perspectives on the future of the Randstad: World City, Coast City and Country City. The planning concepts include specialist clusters around Amsterdam, a mixed urban field by the sea and dispersed living/working environments on the flanks of the Randstad.