Slow Urbanism literature: The Spontaneous City of Urhahn

The buro of Urhahn has a long tradition on the theme of spontaneous development and how to accomodate it in urban design plan or strategies. Recently they published a new book called the 'Spontaneous city' (de Spontane Stad) with a manifest on spontaneous development. It's mainly about facilitating small initiatives and co-producing the development of an area as a municipality.

They theorise four main principles for development:
Zoom in; local initiatives, small steps, land ownership etc

Organise flexibility: this is the character of a city, so organise it to let it happen. Be adjustable in your plan

Create collectivity: organising the same ambitions among (possible) participants is essential to make plans for collective infrastructures (streets, parks, cultural functions)

Work user-friendly: different ways of financing projects should be facilitated on an economic way without to much interference of subsidizing or sponsorship of goverments. Rules should be easy for developing initiatives.

The book is very inspirating and shows how in the rest of the world the Slow Urbanism or Spontaneous way is the common way. This is quite a culture shock for the Dutch, both for professionals as for common people. Already with geograpic lessons on the primary school we were tought the Belgian way was the wrong way resulting in a fully built countryside and chaotic citystreets. So now we can learn from our neighbours, we can take over what's good and maybe leaf suburbanising our countryside!


Urhahn shows that for many dutch cities they are commissioned to rearrange blueprint plans for big area's. Like for instance the Binckhorst, a former industrial area on the edge of the city, nowadays a innercity area with huge potential. OMA made a plan how to maximize this potential into square meters. Municipality together with a few developers were about to start when the crisis came. Result was a crash of the private-public-organisation.

Binckhorst nowadays

OMA masterplan

OMA Binckhorstlaan

Now a new start is being made agian. Meanwhile the industrial Binckhorst which allready was transforming into a high quality bussines park was not allowed to develop the past couple of years. Hopefully soon the natural transofrmation is allowed again, but steered into the wished spontaneous development of both real estate owners, companies and other users, Urhahn and the municipality!

Urhahn: leave freedom for small catalytic initiatives

Urhahn: New Binckhorstlaan; design what you can control