How urban development can be a sparkle for revolution

As Tunisia's leader Ben Ali fled, many Libyans were occupied with local government meetings, where, at least in theory, decisions about local problems are made. The proceedings of one such meeting in a remote western corner of the country, broadcast on Libyan television, were an improbable spark.

Postcard from Tripoli

The Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi has a habit of attending such meetings, dropping in unannounced at local halls. But when he arrived at this particular meeting in western Libya, the discussion quickly shifted to a rather difficult subject. A member of that local council pointed out that many people had no place to live.

Structural Vision 2040 of Amsterdam

 An unanimous approval on 17 februari by the city council of Amsterdam makes the Structural Vision 2040 defenitive, after a preparation of years. The vision aims at an attractive, sustainable, green city with enough houses on suitable locations. Briefly said this means adding about 70.000 dwellings to the existing city according to the municipality. Most must be accomplished by intensifying within the city and not by the traditional green field developments. This is a positive step because dutch cities, also Amsterdam, are usually not so dense compared with other European cities.

Slow Urbanism and Out of the old box; Oilcrisis of the 70s

Latest news is exploding oilprises world wide because of the democration wave what hit the Arab countries lately. Eventough there still is enough production (Saudi Arabia easely compensated the absence of Libyan oil lately) emotions of more revolutions bring back to mind the days of the 70s of the previous century. Here a interesting video about a new oilcrisis.

Slow Urbanism: 'Organical Urbanism' in Almere

Almere is a 'new town' built in 1975 on new polder land where before 1932 was the sea. It started out as a compact city where a lot of commuters lived on 30 train minutes of Amsterdam. Later it developed more suburban with nowadays a lot of (semi)detached and row housing estates. The suburbs are car orientated resulting in a grid lock on the highway to Amsterdam every day. Previously whole estates where developed within 5-10 years with uniformity in architecture and urban styles per developement. Now the developers are not able to build en masse because of lack of finance and demand on this scale a turning point in urban development is reached. Previous plans to build around 60.000 houses till 2030 are being abandoned.

previous plan shows in light red the expansion plans of Almere and needed public transport

Recently, 1 februari, the municipality presented a organical urban design development strategy (organische stedenbouw) and the task to apply it for a specific area called Europakwartier or Europe quarter. The Alderman Adri Duivesteijn is the driving force for these new urban developments. He is known when being Alderman in The Hague to have changed the city renewal projects drastical. Five years ago he introduced on a big scale  the private-house-building method in Almere to offer choice besides the big project developments.